Emmanuel Bornstein

Emmanuel Bornstein was born in Toulouse in 1986 and has lived in Berlin since 2009. Since studying at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts in Paris and the University of the Arts in Berlin, he has devoted himself exclusively to figurative and abstract painting. In his work, he explores the personal biographies of friends, family and persons of contemporary history and references many literary texts from well-known plays, poems and novels. His paintings evoke a torn, almost haunting presence that reflects the struggles, upheavals, errors, but also the joys and beauty of human existence. The painter’s intensive, performative confrontation with the canvas also plays a central role in the limited edition book Wildwechsel. Conceived as a catalog for his solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Rostock, the work contains a retrospective of more than 40 paintings produced between 2012 and 2021. The title alludes to a deer’s crossing as an intrusion of nature into our protected worlds and demands that we stay alert in light of past historical trauma. The book contains a preface by the director of the Kunsthalle Rostock Uwe Neumann and a conversation between the show’s curator Tereza de Arruda and the artist.