Johannes Langkamp
Visual art

Sun Tracing, 2019
Solo exhibition at V2_ Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam
Curated by Florian Weigl

The exhibition Sun Tracing, Johannes Langkamp’s first solo show in Rotterdam, embodies the artist’s longtime fascination with our perception of celestial bodies and the methods and devices developed to capture them. For this exhibition, Langkamps interest concerns the sun in particular.

Central to the exhibition is the work Analog Sun Tracker (2013–2018), in which a mechanical tracking device drives a motorized revolving camera, allowing it to follow the path of the sun with great precision. The work includes three 24-hour time-lapse videos of the movement of the sun, representing one solar day from three distinct locations: Shanghai (31°), Rotterdam (51°), and Kjølleford, Norway (71°). Analog Sun Tracker originated at V2_’s Summer Sessions residency program. Langkamp spent his summer 2013 residency at Chronus Art Center in Shanghai, where he developed the first version of the work.
Sun Tracing also provides insights into the artistic process that led to Analog Sun Tracker, including the artist’s original video proposal and several video sketches of the initial concept. In addition to Analog Sun Tracker, V2_ commissioned two new works by Langkamp in 2018. Each elaborates on a different aspect of his original concept for Analog Sun Tracker and will be shown to an audience for the first time at Sun Tracing.