Molitor & Kuzmin are a collaborative duo of visual artists, who are classified as light art and installation artists.
Life and work
Ursula Molitor (born June 6, 1947, in Hermannsburg, Lower-Saxony) is a German artist, graphic designer and light artist. She studied graphic design in Hamburg and later worked as a graphic artist and illustrator. Since 1983 she has been working as a freelance artist in Cologne, Germany.
Vladimir Kuzmin (born October 16, 1943, in Zaporizhchja, Soviet Union, today Ukraine) is a Russian artist. He studied architecture in Moscow and worked as a freelance artist in the field of painting and graphic design in Moscow. Since 1992 he has been living and working in Cologne.
Since 1996, together they have formed the artist duo Molitor & Kuzmin. In their installations and Light art objects they work with the play of light and shadow, with contrasts and paradoxes. Preferred materials include fluorescent lamps that they deploy like modules, as design elements of their artworks. At a remove from their original meaning, these modules are combined into artefacts, whose technical character and materiality appear to dissolve in radiant brightness, resulting in a work which presents light: Die Leuchtstoffröhre ist Form und Farbe zugleich. (in English: The fluorescent tube is form and colour as well.)
Collections
Kunstmuseum Celle, Celle, Germany Artothek Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany Collection Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany Sparkasse KölnBonn, Cologne, Germany IKK Bundesverband, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany Sammlung Schroth, Soest, Deutschland L'Association Mouvement Art Contemporain (AMAC), Chamalières, France ART4.RU Contemporary Art Museum, Moscow, Russia Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA), Moscow, Russia National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, Russia
Nominations 2004: Light Art Prize LUX US, City Museum of Lüdenscheid, Germany 2010: International André-Evard Art Award, Kunsthalle Messmer, Riegel, Germany 2015: International Lucas-Cranach-Prize, Kronach, Germany 2016: International André-Evard Art Award, Kunsthalle Messmer, Riegel, Germany
Art in public places
2009: Ohne Titel, Light art Installation im Dachgiebel, Kunstmuseum Celle, Celle, Germany 2016: Ein Pilgerstab für Soest, Light art Installation, Soest, Germany
Solo exhibitions (selection)
1999: Galleria Fioretto Arte Contemporanea, Padua, Italy 2000: Video- und Light art Installation, St. Gereon's Basilica, Cologne, Germany 2000: Millennium, St.Petri Kirche Lübeck, Lübeck, Germany 2000: ZeitRäume, Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany 2001: Light, Galleria Fioretto Arte Contemporanea, Padua, Italy 2001: Light art Installation in Porta Savonarola, Padua, Italy 2003: Fiat Lux, Galerie Schröder und Dörr, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany 2006: Fiat Lux, Krokin Gallery, Moscow, Russia 2007: Paradisi Gloria - 4 Licht-und Videoinstallationen zu den Konzerten, Münchner Rundfunkorchester, Herz-Jesu-Kirche, Munich, Germany 2008: In a different Light, Shchusev Museum of Architecture, Moscow, Russia 2010: ÖffentLicht, Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders Bergisch Gladbach, Germany 2010: Requiem, Projekt im Tschechow-Theater, Moscow, Russia 2010: Et fact est Lux, White Square Gallery, Berlin, Deutschland 2016: Take me to the Light, Galerie Floss & Schultz, Cologne, Germany 2022: Extended, Museum L (Muze’um L Licht en Landschap), Roeselare, Belgium
Group exhibitions (selection)
2000: Raumüberschreitungen - Visionen zum Weltall, Galerie Inge Baecker, 2000: ZeitRäume, Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, (a.o. with Hanne Darboven, Douglas Allsop, Madeleine Dietz) 2005: De Kunst van TL (Tube Luminescent), Centre for International Light Art, Eindhoven, Netherlands 2006: Lichtrouten Luedenscheid, Lüdenscheid, Germany 2006: KunstLichtTore Bochum, Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany 2007: Signaal, Centre for International Light Art, Eindhoven, Netherlands 2008: Pas de deux - Wie sich die Bilder gleichen. 15 Jahre Artothek, Artothek Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Bergisch-Gladbach, Germany 2009: Lichtwelten, Weltenlicht, Galerie Inge Baecker, Bad Münstereifel, Germany (with Rosa M. Hessling) 2009: Leuchtzeichen, Kunstmuseum Celle, Celle, Germany (with Jan van Munster) 2010: Requiem, Chekhov Theatre, Moscow, Russia 2013: Firmament, Krokin Gallery, together with the planetarium of the city of Moscow, Russia 2013: Ceci n'est pas une Lampe..., Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn, Germany (a.o. with François Morellet, Jan van Munster) 2013: Scheinwerfer – European Lightart, Kunstmuseum Celle, Celle, Germany (with Jürgen Albrecht, Tim Berresheim, Urs Breitenstein, Klaus Geldmacher, Andrea Thembie Hannig, Detlef Hartung und Georg Trenz, Daniel Hausig, Margareta Hesse, Christoph Hildebrand, Hans Kotter, Siegfried Kreitner, Mischa Kuball, Vollrad Kutscher, Stefanie Lampert, Heinz Mack, Francesco Mariotti, Jakob Mattner, Chris Nägele, Otto Piene, Stephan Reusse, Susanne Rottenbacher, Max Sudhues, Timm Ulrichs, Nils Völker, Rosmarie Weinlich, Claudia Wissmann, Achim Wollscheid) 2013: Vielfalt statt Einfalt. 20 Jahre Artothek Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Kunstmuseum Villa Zanders, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany 2014: Lucida Space, National Centre for Contemporary Arts (NCCA), Moscow, Russiad (a.o. with Ilya Kabakow, Erik Wladimirowitsch Bulatow, John Cage) 2015: Lichtungen, Internationales Lichtkunstfestival, Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany 2017: Signal. Lichtkunst aus der Sammlung Robert Simon, Kunstmuseum Celle, Artikel wiedergegeben auf der Seite des Museums Celle, Germany (with a.o. Klaus Geldmacher, Daniel Hausig, Albert Hien, Christoph Hildebrand, Kazuo Katase, Hans Kotter, Brigitte Kowanz, Siegfried Kreitner, Mischa Kuball, Francesco Mariotti, Otto Piene, Stephan Reusse, Susanne Rottenbacher, Max Sudhues, Timm Ulrichs) 2017: On Target, Exhibition in the framework of European Capital of Culture Paphos 2017, Paphos, Cyprus 2017: //Responsive: International Light Art Project Halifax, NSCAD University , Halifax, Canada 2017/2018: ¡Bright!, Centre for International Light Art, Unna, Germany 2018: Collumina I - Internationales Licht Kunst Projekt Köln, Cologne, Germany 2022: Macht! Licht!, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany 2022/2023: Fantasy of Light, Galerie Braunbehrens, Stuttgart, Germany
References
Further reading
(Included is an article with illustration about the exhibition of Molitor&Kuzmin at Römerturm/Galerie Inge Baecker in 2000)
External links Website of the artists
Catalog of the exhibition Take me to the Light, 2016
Light installation October 2023 at and in the Artothek Cologne