Wilfried Seipel

"My first encounter with Eva Flatscher's artistic work was long ago, but it remains fresh in my memory. How unexpected then was this experience, not only for me, but for all who were able to be present: the whirling dance of colors created by the painter in time with the music, her brush strokes matching its staccato sounds, embedded in an ever-evolving design. In these constantly changing digital images there seemed to hide a sweeping tale, which we enchanted spectators were seeking to decipher! It was a great experience, though it is now long past. But her work – her endeavor to tell a story through grand gestures of movement, of dance, of colors suffused like suns with light and life-giving gladness – has progressed further. With artistic certitude, and in a truly natural way, it has found its unique form of expression, which is described only in part by the name Lightpainting. Dance and music, movement and formal composition, the colors of paintings, often modeled on the works of great masters, generated in the brilliance of light and digitally transformed: these are the formative elements not simply of Eva Flatscher's work but of the world as a whole. All of these elements, united by the guiding hand of the artist – the "storyteller" – mirror the world, tell stories, mysteries or fairytales, show signs of oneness with our feelings, perceptions and thoughts. And in this way your compositions convey their import. At times, Eva Flatscher's productions recall the Traumpfade, the "song lines" or "dream lines" of the Australian aborigines, who by dancing and singing seek to decipher the mystery of the cosmos, of Dreamtime, in a pictorial realization of the past. So also Eva Flatscher's performances, with dancers in the role of thaumaturges, offer in their dramatic configuration and amalgamation of music, movement and densely textured compositions of color an image of our world, of our existence. To immerse oneself in them brings delight!"


Wilfried Seipel was Executive Director of the Museum of History of Art (KHM) in Vienna from 1990 to 2008, he is honorary president of ICOM, the International Council of Museums. The "El Greco" and "Bruegel" exhibitions during his tenure were among his greatest successes.