'Alongside Outside' by Lisa Tiemann at Fiebach, Minninger, Cologne

The title of the exhibition alongside outside can be translated to the German in the literal sense of “entlang des Äußeren” and also as a description of Lisa Tiemann’s artistic practice. A form’s detours and borders carry with them the question of whether the contours define the sculpture or the room they occupy. Tiemann’s sculptures emerge from a graphic gesture: a simple stroke - a line - developed through many iterative studies and finally transferred from the page into the exhibition space. More a vocabulary than a repertoire of forms, these signs vary in their clarity, shifting between abstraction and concreteness. They are accessible and legible, but, nevertheless, uninterpretable. Or, rather, they elude any one, definitive interpretation.

Two sculptures developed for the exterior space of alongside outside, address the relationship between the interior and exterior world of a body in a space and in a landscape. This builds on Tiemann’s recent engagement with outdoor sculpture. Though in a larger format, expansive and withstanding constant exposure to the outdoors, they daringly hold on to their energy and lightness - the outdoor sculptures, which have been grouped around them and which have been made for the interior exhibition space, share the same qualities. The outdoor sculptures do not appear fixed to the ground, but rather tilt, bend and teeter depending on the visitor’s perspective. With their luminous, vibrant colorfulness, they confidently assert themselves in their respective surroundings, serving as artistic markings on the landscape. The sculptures depict closed, organic forms and define an inside. The line thus becomes a kind of weather- resistant skin that offers protection, breathes and functions as the dividing line of a body. But the forms are not hermetic in either their legibility or their spatial extension. Even when the sculptural body is shown inside a gallery space, the outside environment - the exterior surrounding - is implicitly present.

The works conceptualized for the interior space pursue the principle of inside/outside. The viewer moves along a line between the interior and exterior space, following a handrail or the silhouette of a mountain range. Geometric forms perform a balancing act, appearing as fleeting landscapes and body parts. They seem to organically grow from the earth or clay, manifesting as paper mâché, steel, rubber and concrete. Stubborn and curiously inspired, they refuse any one, definitive attribution.

— Luise Pilz