Nachtflug / Night Flight

Düsseldorf artist Gereon Lepper’s sculpture incorporates a system of balance that reacts to wind and gravity. The steel, aluminum, and counterweights make the work seem primarily technical and functional at first glance. However, it comes to life with the slightest breeze and conveys an unexpected lightness and poetry in the “natural” swing of its wings. At the same time, the construction can withstand even the severest storm.
Night Flight combines kinetic sculpture and light art. With strong lights shining up at the white reflective coating along the bottom of the wings, they turn into glowing reflective objects in the dark. All of the other components have a matte anthracite grey coating and are only faintly visible at night. Changing light, the water surface, the earth’s gravitational pull, and wind power: the natural elements enter a symbiosis with the seemingly hostile industrial material. A shimmering nightshade, a giant white bird, a pale waving hand: the technical sculpture evokes associations to nature when combined with the element of light.
This artistic utopia, uniting the dichotomy of nature and technology, marks the end of the Lichtpromenade as a sign of departure, reconciliation, dynamism, and vitality. With a flap of its wings, Night Flight stimulates thought and perception while creating ongoing associations with the rest of the Lippstadt Lichtpromenade with a lively, freeing gesture. Here, the end of the path also marks a starting point.

Original German text: Dirk Raulf (curator)
Additional information: www.lippstadt.de/kultur/kultur/Lichtpromenade.php