"Stockage 124" Photograph

born 1953 in BrazilThe work of Luzia Simons is located precisely at the interface between the obvious and the cultural code, naked reproduction and metaphor. Using modern scanning techniques, the artist produces images of flowers. In this way, her images not only come to include the ideal forms of blossoming beauty, but also faults, malfunctions and the start of irrevocable decay. Simons' art, however, is not primarily concerned with the warning of vanitas - the reminder of the transience of all being in the old paintings -, but with the rather rambling tale of a cultural symbol. The tulip thus becomes a metaphor of mobility, globalisation and intercultural identity. The much sought-after flower developed into a cultural symbol in both the Occident and Orient. Originating from the Orient, it was brought to Europe and altered by cultivation in Holland; finally, it returned to its ancient origins in new varieties thus becoming an example of cultural migration, a symbol of exchange and of insidious changes in aesthetic significance.Press-Knstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany, 2006