Michael Bork: A Researcher of Perception

In this column, I will regularly feature interesting artists who deserve to be introduced to a wider audience. One such artist—whom Americans would classify as an “artist to watch”—is Michael Bork!

Michael Bork has put in a formidable performance over the past 24 months.

Few photographic artists have demonstrated such restless energy. There’s hardly an exhibition where he hasn’t been represented. I myself had the great fortune to meet him at a regular get-together of the Crossart International artists’ association. Peter Mück (“the Banksy of Cologne”) introduced him to me back then. I noticed how Bork was able to sort through the participants’ thoughts and suggestions and document them in a structured way.

That’s when I decided to keep an eye on his art.

In his work, Michael Bork is a researcher of perception. His motifs are diverse—they can be landscape depictions, urban observations, or abstract visual structures. But his works are always characterized by multiple layers of meaning, by a second glance. As the old master Reich-Ranicki once said, great novels must possess multiple levels of meaning.

Here, a connection emerges between Michael Bork’s work and superb music and literature.

At this point, I can only showcase a few light traces of his work. For those who would like to learn more, I suggest visiting Michael Bork’s website or simply viewing his work at two upcoming exhibitions at the Contemplor Gallery in Vienna (late March and mid-May). He is a member of numerous artists’ associations and exhibits internationally. He recently moved his studio from the Rhineland to Berlin. An e-book by him is currently being published.

Photo 1: Portrait of the artist (photographed by Beata Bork)

Photo 2: “When the Night Rider Takes the Underground”

Direct photo print on AluDibond, 90x160 cm (photographed in Berlin)

"...A quiet corridor between two worlds, a space that exists only in the late hours, when the city slows its pace. The lights stretch through the darkness like an endless chain of thoughts, and the tracks carry the echoes of countless paths that have already begun or ended here. At this hour, the underground belongs to those who move silently—the travelers who do not wish to be seen, and the stories that take shape only in the shadows. The Night Rider is one of these figures.

Not one of flesh and blood, but an echo of the city itself. He appears when Berlin sheds its surface and lays bare its inner layers. He knows the hidden paths, the places where time stretches, and the moments when reality becomes permeable for an instant.

His path leads through the veins of the metropolis, as if he were an impulse keeping the nocturnal system alive. Thus, the image tells of a journey that is less geographical than existential. It describes the moment when one entrusts oneself to the underground and, for a brief time, becomes part of an invisible current.

The Night Rider stands for all those who move through this in-between world: seekers, observers, people on their way to something that will only become visible in the next light..."

Text by the artist