Blick von Alturfahr 2020

Curator: Gazmend Freitag's 2020 acrylic on canvas, "Blick von Alturfahr," presents a captivating view. What's your initial reaction? Editor: A sort of hazy serenity washes over me. The cool blues and greens are so soothing. It feels like a memory, something beautiful but not quite grasped. Curator: It does have that dreamy quality. The artist really captures a sense of place, though in an abstracted way. Look at the city buildings rendered in such simplified forms. How do you think Freitag achieves this dreamlike impression? Editor: Partly through the color palette, that cool dominance. But also, notice how the reflections in the water aren’t precise mirrors? They almost dissolve into the surface. In iconographic terms, the water serves as a symbol of subconscious; the indistinct reflections blur the clarity of objective reality, mirroring the elusive quality of a half-remembered experience. Curator: That's insightful. It’s almost as if the buildings and landscape are secrets held within the water. It also reminds me of Impressionist landscapes, capturing a feeling, a mood of a particular location rather than exact details. Editor: Exactly, it is impressionist landscape but with a contemporary touch; like we are viewing reality through memory. Those red roofs atop the buildings seem to pull me back. In color symbology, red usually denotes passion, and urgency. Curator: Absolutely! The dashes of red inject a needed contrast within those calming greens. I keep noticing new details like the buildings hugging the shore on the horizon and a strange ghostly pillar, like the columns in ancient ruins. There are very few precise details. How curious! Editor: And think about the "open space" aspect: this visual vagueness emphasizes openness and space. Gazmend encourages imagination. It allows one to meditate upon location, memory, emotion, the city landscape, but simultaneously transcends the boundaries. Gazmend’s perspective allows people to feel present and simultaneously connected with the past, their memory and consciousness. Curator: Yes, by giving us only fragments and impression he encourages us to build our version of it. In that sense, he gives us keys not to understand him, but understand ourselves. Editor: What an enchanting painting it is. It leaves you reflecting!