nocturnes
series of 54 drawings
[about the night]
collaboration with Erwin Uhrmann
S_T_I_L_L_E, exhibition view, ink on paper, 38x200 cm, 2013
S_T_I_L_L_E, ink on paper, 38x200 cm, 2013
S_, ink on paper, 31.2x25 cm, 2013
L_, ink on paper, 31.2x25 cm, 2013
S_T_I_L_L_E
The work S_T_I_L_L_E is part of the larger series nocturnes. It is based on the Lorm Alphabet, that was developed to communicate with deaf and blind people, who lost their abilities after previously being able to read and/or hear. Letters are formed by touching a certain spot on the palm of the hand or through a gesture of movement along the skin. This series of drawings forms the letters of the German word Stille (engl.: silence), the arrows or points describe where the hand of the deaf-blind person would be touched to write this term on the palm.
It is the hand of the artist that serves as a model for the series. Drawn with black ink on white paper in an inverse image. The white outlines are the literally left-blank page. The focus lies on the circumstances of producing art: which impressions cause one to react, what breaks the silence and how communication is established between the artist, the artwork and the viewers.
[…] “and even inveterate draftsmen like Moussa Kone no longer pour out their innermost feelings on paper. His work S_T_I_L_L_E consists of six parts, each showing the palm of a hand. They are each inscribed with a character that stands for a letter in the communication of deaf-blind people. With the focus on the tactile function of the hands, Kone's series leads back to the medium of drawing: in it, after all, the hand is the most important translator of imagined worlds and ideas.”
The last paragraph is quoted from a review by Christa Benzer, Der Standard, June 28, 2012, p.30 (translated from German)
exhibition view, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2x25 cm, 2013
“The night, that dark part of the day when we humans usually rest, holds an inexhaustible reservoir for interpretation: it can be mysterious and threatening, romantic and dreamlike, has always inspired poets, musicians and painters, and stands metaphorically for the unexplored, for times of war and illness.”
Sebastian Gilli, Der Standard Album, May 4 2013, p.4
(translated German)
sky, ink on paper, 31.2x50 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2x25 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2 x 25 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2x25 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2 x 25 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2x25 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2 x 25 cm, 2013
pour gerard, ink on paper, 37.2x140 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2x25 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2 x 25 cm, 2013
fade out, ink on paper, 37.2x200 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2x25 cm, 2013
ink on paper, 31.2 x 25 cm, 2013
nocturnes
The whole series nocturnes consists of 54 ink drawings. All of them were especially composed for an artist book with texts by the Austrian author Erwin Uhrmann and later were shown in various exhibitions. The series describes a turbulent, dangerous journey through one night: road trips, twilight hours, nightmare-episodes, clear and bright moments, excursions into remote areas, far into the solar system, nebulously described secrets, violence, serenades, anxiety, murders, street ballads, ecstatic moments and kinky poems.
The title nocturnes refers to pieces of music inspired by the night, which originated in the Baroque period as free compositions without structural specifications. Later, nocturnes were written primarily for piano, such as by Frédéric Chopin, Alexander Scriabin, and Erik Satie. In Chopin's case, the Nocturnes were no longer quiet pieces corresponding to the cliché of the night as a vacuum of sleep, as their predecessors were, but rather they explore the spectrum of the instrument in all its forms of expression, a play of extremes, a symbol of the night, which - in the dark - allows an inexhaustible scope for interpretation.
“The night, that dark part of the day when we humans usually rest, holds an inexhaustible reservoir for interpretation: it can be mysterious and threatening, romantic and dreamlike, has always inspired poets, musicians and painters, and stands metaphorically for the unexplored, for times of war and illness. The author Erwin Uhrmann and the artist Moussa Kone have been working together artistically for many years; both have succumbed to the fascination of the night. They have now collected their impressive examination of night moments in their art book Nocturnes. This multifaceted, dense composition of lyrical texts and black-and-white drawings testifies to an immensely strong linguistic and pictorial power of association. Poems and drawings complement each other and at the same time seek their own ways of presenting content and form.” […]
The last paragraph is a quote from a book review written by Sebastian Gilli (Der Standard, Album, May 4, 2013, p.4) and was translated from German.