On nights without a moon, forests and fields are very dark. The darkness swallows up the land. The trees, shrubs and animals are there, of course. Only vision is missing. The other senses compensate this lack with an unwonted intensity of perception. The elements which usually define our perception are shifted. Pictures which do not exist are created in your mind.
The dark country had become smaller. Electric light had nearly eliminated darkness. Only in thinly populated regions does true darkness still exist. Due to the shrinking population and the people moving to urban areas these dark regions are again starting to expand. Where humanity withdraws, darkness returns. Darkness is once again expanding.
When you search for the dark country the roads become smaller and lonelier. In the twilight, some tracks are still visible. In time, they lead into the dark. In these moonless nights, your eyes can’t orient you. Your whole body is awake to the night. In the dark country, every sound and every meeting becomes an adventure.
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The photographs that make up the series “Durch ein dunkles Land” (“Through the Dark Country”), depict the return from the dark country. For the creation of “Wüstungen” – another work – Thilo Seibt travelled to the dark country to find traces of no longer existing places with the use of long exposures. Surrounded by hours of darkness he recorded the traces of these places in time. Still inthrall to the darkness he began the return journey aided by light. In the ray of the lamp, dwellers in the dark country appeared briefly. Things that were only felt before became visible for a moment. The images are usually out of focus. The light wanders nervously through the forests and hedgerows. Sometimes there were short focused looks back into the dark country. Thilo Seibt captured these impressions with his camery.
exhibitions:
Galerie Emma T. (Berlin)
04.05. – 31.05.2013
Galerie Marktgasse 11 (Wittstock)
02.11. – 30.11.2012 – Wüstungen
time and place
march 2011
near Jeebel (Saxony-Anhalt)
exhibition dates:
16 prints 40×50 framed
required length of wall: 15-30 metres