We meet in the backyard in Friedrichstadt. This is where it all happens, where Mischa Kuball creates and lives. His works are archived here and stored in transport crates. The designs for his architectural light installations are created in a studio with metres of bookshelves. He switches on the predominantly white light, puts places, people and nature in the spotlight and aims to provide political and social impetus. The 65-year-old is a bundle of energy, someone who finds it hard to take no for an answer, a restless spirit who prefers to be on the move – physically and mentally.

Mischa Kuball's light installation 'missing link' commemorates the destruction of the Great Synagogue.

Mischa, have you ever imagined anything other than a life as an artist?
The decision was probably born out of necessity. I was a bright pupil, but I had difficulties with authority. My art teacher was Jörg Immendorff, I was fascinated by his kind of resistance. When I was twelve, I could imagine being an artist for the first time in my life. At 18, I ventured into my first performances, took on small roles, became a father for the first time at 21 and decided to study social education, specialising in media theory. Artists like Joseph Beuys, but also the Bauhaus movement and Plato's Politeia, one of the most influential writings of antiquity, have influenced me and are still my passion today.

You like to work on a lot of projects at the same time – where is the common thread?
There is one constant fore behind all concepts - my tenacious will to make a difference. My work is not an end in itself. It's not about me as a person, but about me as an author, as a medium. For me, the melancholy of fulfilment lies in carrying something further.

What projects are you currently working on?
Closely connected to Düsseldorf is "missing link_" - an attempt to recall the Great Synagogue on Kasernenstraße, which was burnt to the ground by the Nazis during the Reichspogromnacht on 9/10 November 1938 and was home to 5,500 Jewish citizens living here at the time. It has been replaced with a new building and a memorial stone on which dogs used to pee. I want to fill the empty space, enhance the place. A twelve-metre glass plate, which depicts a section of the historic synagogue in black using a ceramic printing process, is now permanently switched on and illuminated at nightfall. The project was put together in cooperation with the Jewish community of Düsseldorf, the city of Düsseldorf and the memorial site. My wish is that perhaps the forgotten synagogue can become a memorial calling for peace through the light installation. Because in times of war in the Middle East, spaces for dialogue are needed more than ever. In addition to the installation, a QR code provides information, historical images and eyewitness accounts.

ABOUT MISCHA KUBALL
The conceptual artist Mischa Kuball, born in Düsseldorf in 1959, has been working in public and social spaces since 1977. In his art he is playing with the medium of light - and uses it to explore architectural spaces as well as social and political discourses and reflects on a variety of aspects from socio-cultural structures to architectural interventions, whose monumentality and architectural-historical context he emphasises or reinterprets. He teaches "public art" at the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne, is an associate professor of the Excellence Cluster at the Humboldt University Berlin and a member of the Academy of Sciences and Arts NRW. He is married and father of three sons (44 and 22 years old).

You reflect on the past and create socio-critical references to current events. What electrifies you?
Injustice, when something is unjustly marginalised, unheard and unconsidered. It's worth taking a stand, getting involved. Adopting an attitude and having an attitude is an effort. Anyone who hesitates will not be taken seriously. In each individual project, the public sphere itself is scrutinised, its conditions and opportunities for participation, perhaps also its degree of democracy. My works seek to mobilise and sensitise the public. The aim is to create a space for discussion in which people of different origins and backgrounds, different topics and opinions can find a place. Because this is also an appeal for tolerance and peaceful coexistence.

Light, your artistic material, illuminates situations in politics, space, society and history. Are you a light artist?
More of a conceptual artist. I'm not talking about a work of art, but rather a tool that can create an impulse.

The transnational project “if walls could tell” will finally arrive at the Weltkunstzimmer in Flingern at the end of 2025.

Where and how do you find your topics?
So, one example is that when Ukraine was attacked, there was talk of the first war in Europe since 1945, while the Balkan war in the 1990s was ignored. With the transnational project "if walls could tell", we are now scrutinising art institutions in terms of their permeability to broader social groups within a community. Over a limited period of time, three symbolic museum walls will be installed in public spaces in several cities in south-east Europe, where they will serve as an accessible and temporary stage for the inhabitants. Like a filter, these walls will catch all "traces" of people's cultural and urban expressions, away from the cultural institutions to which they refer. As part of this the walls will be erected in the new Ars Aevi Museum building planned by Renzo Piano in Sarajevo. At the end of 2025, the campaign sponsored by the Federal Agency for Civic Education will finally arrive at the Weltkunstzimmer in Flingern.

What is behind Space relations, another project in the Weltkunstzimmer?
For one year, I will be helping to build a strong international network there in order to reposition the Hans Peter Zimmer Foundation's unique art centre in Europe and make it more visible as a partner in all areas of the arts.

Is Düsseldorf a good place for you as an artist?
I like the countryside, but for my work I need urban spaces of tension, an urban society with all its controversies and differences.

You like to go the extra mile, and not just as a marathon runner ...
For me, running is dynamic meditation, and it works anywhere in the world. But it's an incredible privilege to be able to run here in Düsseldorf along the Rhine. •

Words: Dagmar Haas-Pilwat
Pictures: VG BILD-KUNST BONN 2024, Achim Kukulies, Nicolas Wefers, Archiv Mischa Kuball

Nothing is without Light