Dani Jakob

Der erste Blick

The first sight

In the south of Germany, a few kilometers from the Rhine, there´s a range of volcanic hills- not very big- in midst of a rather flat landscape. The hot rocks and fertile loamy soil allow good wine to grow.

From the very top of the mountain, you can see beyond the vineyards and the Rhine river plains up the foot of Vosges Mountains; in the other direction up to the rising Black Forest.

I used to spend a lot of time on top of that mountain, with friends, often on my own; reading, drinking wine and letting my eyes wander. In the evenings you could observe white lights on the plains, the sharp line of the straightened Rhine and behind it the yellow lights of France.

An enormous, two-colored surface.

There might be a time in life, in which one develops a sort of matrix; a pre-stage to something which will continue developing later on.

In any case, I always felt that these moments, these images and these states of being on top of that mountain are what have made me an artist.

Today, when working in my studio or doing site-specific installations in museums, it feels like being on top of that mountain, surrounded by nature, even though I’m mostly in the middle of a city.

This state is hard to describe, kind of atmospheric noise.

I feel the need to re-create this noise time after time as a point of origin for everything else.

It´s like trying to reproduce the same one image again and again, an image I already know very well.

Dani Jakob, Ripatransone, Italy, June 2014.

The text is part of an email conversation between Martin Germann, S.M.A.K. Gent and Dani Jakob.

Dani Jakob, born in 1973 in Freiburg i./Br. is based in Berlin.

She has contributed to numerous exhibitions in Germany and outside, amongst others CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Städt. Galerie Remscheid; ArtBasel/Nicolas Krupp; Galerie Deborah Schamoni, München; Galerie Linn Lühn, Düsseldorf; Galerie Joanna Kamm, Berlin; Sammlung Falckenberg/ Deichtorhallen Hamburg; Städtische Galerie Waldkraiburg; Pace Wildenstein Gallery, NY; MeyerRiegger Karlsruhe; Kunstverein Frankfurt; Sammlung Falckenberg/Phoenix Kunsthallen; ZKM Karlsruhe; ArtBasel Statements; Kunsthaus Glarus; 4th Berlin Biennale; Vilma Gold Gallery, London; Kunsthaus Palais Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz; Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg; Kunsthaus Baselland; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Museum Abteiberg Mönchengladbach; Greene Naftali Gallery, NY; Kunstverein Frankfurt; MeyerRiegger Karlsruhe;Lothringer 13, München; ZKM Karlsruhe.

Collections: Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Museum Abeteiberg Mönchengladbach;
Artist Pension Trust Berlin; CCA Andratx, Mallorca