Another crowd-puller at the Art Cologne 2025 art fair was the work “Silences. Active Images 1990-2012” by Lohner:Carlson (Henning Lohner and Van Carlson) at the stand of Buchhandlung Walther König. The work is an edition of 38 unique video works in book form. In this video, Henning Lohner talks about the creation and significance of the work, his artistic oeuvre in general, and new projects.
“Silences are filmed objects that we found along the wayside of Everyday surprises, caught with a wonder-some urge to refine the frame of our attention, to shift focus, to zoom in on that rarest moment, to catch it like a fish jumping out of water - brief ashes turned into ballet: I'd like to give these passages - healing moments for me - back to you, my friendly bystander, in hopes that they may bring you joy.” (Henning Lohner)
Lohner:Carlson (Henning Lohner und Van Carlson): “Silences. Active Images 1990-2012” (2025), Buchhandlung Walther König, Art Cologne 2025. Interview with Henning Lohner. Cologne (Germany), November 7, 2025.
Lohner:Carlson is the visionary artist duo of German filmmaker, composer, and media artist Henning Lohner (b. 1961, Bremen) and acclaimed American cinematographer Van Carlson (1950–2011, Colorado). Their creative partnership ignited in 1989, sparked by a pivotal introduction from icon Frank Zappa, and flourished into a profound exploration of moving images that blur the boundaries between photography, film, and conceptual art.
Influenced by avant-garde giants like John Cage and Iannis Xenakis, Lohner:Carlson crafted seminal works such as the 1992 art film One11 and 103—a 90-minute black-and-white meditation on light and chance, directed by Lohner and lensed by Carlson—and the posthumous Cage homage The Revenge of the Dead Indians (1993), featuring luminaries like Dennis Hopper, Yoko Ono, and Matt Groening. Their signature Active Images series, debuting in 2006, captures fixed-frame vignettes of landscapes, cities, and portraits in subtle, uncontrolled motion—evoking fleeting moments of emergence, flow, and completion in a hyper-saturated visual world.
Since Carlson's passing, Lohner has carried their legacy forward through exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim New York, SFMOMA, and beyond, alongside innovative editions like Silences. Active Images 1990-2012. A bridge between stillness and vitality, Lohner:Carlson's oeuvre invites us to pause, observe, and rediscover the extraordinary in the everyday.
