Artists: Nathalie Junod Ponsard - Hans Kotter

Patrick Heide Contemporary Art presents Levitation, a duo exhibition featuring the works of Nathalie Junod Ponsard (b. 1961, France) and Hans Kotter (b. 1966, Germany).

Levitation brings together two artists who explore the transformative power of light and colour, examining their ability to redefine our perception of space and challenge our sense of orientation. Both artists create immersive experiences that seem to suspend reality, playing with optical illusions and inviting to enter a state of visual floating. Together, the works of Junod Ponsard and Kotter present a compelling meditation on levitation as both a physical and metaphorical concept.

The exhibition takes its name from Nathalie Junod Ponsard’s site-specific installation Levitation, which transforms the gallery into a glowing landscape of movement and colour. Constructed with vibrant gelatin filters, the installation envelops the space in undulating shades of yellow and purple, creating a luminous, floating effect that gives the impression of defying gravity. This interplay of organic forms and radiant hues challenges our sense of spatial awareness, immersing the viewer in a hypnotic, dreamlike environment.

Junod Ponsard’s artistic practice focuses on light as both a medium and an experience, using pure wavelengths to alter sensory perception and recalibrate how we engage with space. Her creations evoke a delicate balance between the familiar and the extraordinary, often leaving viewers in a state of physical and emotional wonder. Her art pushes the boundaries of perception, exploring how light interacts with biological systems and inducing psychotropic effects that transcend the visible.

In dialogue with Junod Ponsard’s immersive installation, Hans Kotter presents his light sculptures that expand on the theme of levitation. Kotter’s works guide viewers through an evolving journey of light and form, weaving tension and fluidity into a narrative of spatial transformation. His minimalistic forms — circles and squares — create illusions of infinite depth and movement, as if the light itself is levitating and expanding into the three-dimensional space.

Kotter’s practice blends technical precision with natural aesthetics, crafting works that oscillate between artificiality and painterly expression. Using materials such as metal, mirrors, Plexiglas, and LEDs, his objects reflect and refract their surroundings, becoming dynamic extensions of the spaces they inhabit.

Nathalie Junod Ponsard has presented her work in numerous prestigious international institutions and venues. Highlights include Evi-Lichtungen Biennial in Germany (2020), the Luxelakes A4 Museum and MOCA in Chengdu, China (2015 and 2014), the Palazzo Farnese in Rome for the Luce di Pietra trail (2007), and the Singapore Art Museum during the Biennale (2001). In France, her site-specific light installations were exhibited at the Pompidou Centre (2005), the Espace Fondation EDF (2013), and the Basilica of Saint-Denis (2014). Permanent public works include Le dépli de la lumière on the Austerlitz Building (2017), Crépuscule persistant at Place Malraux (2010–2020), and the carpet Odyssée, designed for the grand staircase of the Elysée Palace (2021). Recently, she created Le moment magnétique and Voie Lactée for the Athletes’ Village in Saint-Denis for the 2024 Olympics.

Hans Kotter’s work has been exhibited widely throughout Europe and the United States and is included in international collections including the Borusan Collection in Istanbul; Kinetica Museum in London; Targetti Light Art Collection in Florence and MAKK Museum für Angewandte Kunst Cologne among others. In 2024 Kotter won a prestigious art prize Deutscher Lichtkunstpreis 2024.