Mario Reis Frog Concert on 11 December
8 December 2022
Mario Reis
Characteristic of the work of Mario Reis, born in 1953 in the Upper Swabian town of Weingarten, is the momentum of elemental forces he initiates with the help of a variety of media, which he allows to actively participate in the creative act. His richly varied spectrum ranges from pictorially captured train tracks, flowing waters in his nature watercolours, real firecrackers in the scores of a frog concert, champagne cork stamp pictures to oxidation processes of salt and copper, the creative potential of which Mario Reis gives artistic form.
On 11 December, third Sunday of Advent the focus is on his explosive firecracker works at the Cadoro. The artist sets the stage by providing the firecrackers, the canvas and all the other components, but the actual creative moment is shaped by the unfolding forces – in this case those of fire – which spread traces of smoke across the picture support. But he is not alone. The Frog Concert is explicitly designed as an participatory event. The visitors are not passive observers but active participants, which is why we hope you will come in large numbers. And the frog is not alone either. He is legion. What will the work look like in the end? Not even Mario Reis is able to predict that.
For all those who want to get an idea of the artistic practice in dealing with the explosive amphibians, we are showing an artist’s talk this week that Dr Dorothea van der Koelen held with Mario Reis in the Cadoro. This much can be revealed: It doesn’t stop at theory ...
