Jörg Ernert - Stafe Door

You and your friends are warmly invited to the opening with the artist on Friday, October 27 at 7 PM! Annette Schröter, Professor of Painting at HGB Leipzig, will speak.

"In January 2016, I began to explore the stages of the Leipzig Opera House through drawing. The immense dimensions are intimidating, windowless halls illuminated by artificial light.

I am fascinated by the transformability of this place.

It’s not just the constant changes in light or scenery; it’s also the solitude before artists take to the stage. It’s remarkable how a single dancer or singer can fill that emptiness with their captivating energy, making the walls resonate and shaping the space.

The scenic rehearsals, where malleable forms encounter concrete concepts, provide material for my visual worlds. Often, my focus is on what lies behind, on the side view. I am interested not in the director's perspective, not in the audience's line of sight, nor in the finished productions, but in the Stage Door – the entrance to the mysterious workplace of the stage. The pencils are sharpened, multiple layers unfold, a piece within a piece begins.

Perhaps media like photography or film can describe this place in more detail. However, for me, it is the searching process that holds interest. Capturing moments through the filter of eye, mind, and hand, rapid movements, endless loops, and silence, allowing myself to be surprised by the drawn snippets of reality. Sketchbooks filled with material for new color spaces, because color, it seems to me, is the strongest medium for the theme."

Jörg Ernert

Since 2012, Jörg Ernert has held a professorship in Painting, Drawing, and Composition at HGB Leipzig.