In the exhibition, they meet in the play with the three-dimensional, Hartenstein through the question of his own location in front of the work, Helmig through organically growing forms and structures on the threshold of the spatial. Armin Hartenstein has become known above all for his volcanic cauldrons and island forms, the outlines of which he cuts and breaks out of wooden panels and then develops on this picture support using the Tromp l’Oeil technique. Although the image carrier is two-dimensional, a very three-dimensional spatial illusion is created, which only dissolves when viewed from the side. Hartenstein places mountains, craters and geological structures in the picture in a painterly and object-like manner, playing with appearance and reality. While Hartenstein creates fictional abstractions of landscapes, Ilka Helmig abstracts scientific phenomena. For example, she has made works on the theme of random distribution, locating self-similar structures in the most diverse contexts. Helmig plays with our notions of the random and the provisional, yet everything in her work is very clearly and thoughtfully conceived in relation to each other and to the exhibition space. (Text: Torsten Obrist)