In this new cycle of paintings, Norbert Bisky looks at the trappings of post-pandemic life. The title “Passengers” has a double meaning: after the lockdowns, travel activity is back at its previous level, yet concurrently, individuals are hurled blindly through space and time by forces beyond their control. Falling figures symbolizing the loss of supporting structures are a recurring motif in Bisky’s work. Feelings of unbearable acceleration and distrust of perceptible reality are expressed in abstract pictorial spaces, offset with contemporary architecture and technical equipment. Cell phones, surveillance cameras and ticking clocks illustrate the external supervision of the “Passengers”. Opposite them are the “Sleepers”, dreamers whose passage leads them into their inner world, the unconscious and the repressed.
