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European Ethnology

Metamorphoses of Life - MIMESE - Evi Leuchtgelb

"If we now notice that in this way it is possible for the plant to take a step backwards and reverse the order of growth, we are made all the more attentive to the regular way of nature, and we become acquainted with the laws of transformation, according to which it produces one part through another, and presents the most varied forms through modification of a single organ. [...] This metamorphosis shows itself to us in three ways; regularly, irregularly, and randomly."

(J.W. von Goethe)

It is precisely this random metamorphosis described by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that is the starting point for my work Mimesis.


MIMESE - 2020 (ongoing project)
Installation | Photography | Animation
C-Print auf Acryl Fineart in Galeriebox - Videostills
c-print on acrylic glas fineart in gallerybox - Videostills
Dimensions variable

Parts of different plants are arranged next to or behind each other and set in motion for the animated film "Mimese" (Mimesis). By randomly applying the video filter "Caleidoscope", all parts are mirrored and brought into a new order. Through this digital intervention, the plants multiply and take on a completely new appearance. A digital new arrangement is generated coincidentally from an analogue image situation and breathes new life into it through manual movements and interventions. Entirely new creatures are created, somewhere between metamorphosis, mutation and mimesis. Scientific fields such as flora and fauna overlap and must therefore be redefined.

I would like to extend this work, which I started in Lower Austria in 2020, continued during a residency in Greece in 2021, in Styria and in St.Pölten in 2022, with more and more complementary research and working methods. I have already noticed that the plant parts, stones, branches, etc. from the various regions and collected during various seasons used for the animations achieve very different visual results and thus reflect the vegetation and typical colouring of a landscape. This creates completely different new species, so-called cre(n)atures, in each experiment. Depending on the season and location, I also investigate in more detail what influence the nature of the collecting area has on the plants or the cre(n)atures - is it a forest, a meadow or an (artificially) planted garden. 

filmscreening, Seoul/South Korea, 2022 videocity

Evi Leuchtgelb is a self-employed visual artist, cultural educator (for museums), forest guide and lives and works in Dunkelsteinerwald/ Lower Austria. The focus of her work is  development and management of media-pedagogical and artistic workshop programmes with techniques like Cyaynotype|Stoptrick|Comic|Landart.

more information

Exhibition view, Lames Sonnenpark St.Pölten/Austria, 2022

Exhibition view, Kunstverein Kulm, K3 Kulturstock, Pischelsdorf/Austria, 2022

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