Ugo Dossi: Signs
22 January to 3 July 2022

« A sign can be a magical thing. A few simple lines on any given surface have the power to evoke images in the person looking at them, calling up memories, emotions, and opinions. That’s magic. » Ugo Dossi

Ugo Dossi’s art revolves around models of the world, dealing with the interrelations of art and science, subconscious creativity as well as sensual and transcendental matters. The artist hailing from Munich has been fascinated by ancient Egyptian culture from an early age. To this very day, the power of Egyptian hieroglyphs as well as natural philosophy and the properties of objects have lost none of their appeal to Dossi. Elements and metals in particular may undergo transmutations, which is exactly the subject area of alchemy, whose name is said to have Arabic origins. The Arabic word «Al-Kemiya» is understood to describe Egyptian art, meaning art from Kemet. Kemet, the ancient name of Egypt, means «Black Land». Being practiced in Egypt, alchemy therefore was «black art» and seen as the «queen among the arts». As all ancient Egyptian art forms, it is based on metaphors and allegories.

Despite his intense studies of the ancient Egyptian world, Ugo Dossi has not become an Egyptologist. Instead, he chose not to unravel its mysteries. Dossi considers hieroglyphs to be pictographic archives of Egyptian knowledge having survived to the present day. The artist’s own symbolic language, reduced to the bare essentials, feeds on Dossi’s engagement in the Egyptian imaginary world. Dossi’s drawings, sculptures and holographic works combine ancient Egyptian allegoric images and present-day pictorial worlds. His central composition principle is the «Rebis». The term is taken from alchemy, meaning the union of two opposing forces to form a higher entity. Based on this idea, Dossi recently created a group of works titled Alphabet der Kraft-freisetzenden Zeichen (Alphabet of elementary signs that release power), whose objects comprise two coupled signs, encouraging the audience to associate a meaning with the signs. According to Dossi, his art triggers neuronal activity by suggesting a myriad of connections and ramifications. The artist compares these connections to a blossoming tree branching out, hoping to evoke positive images and feelings within the onlooker.

Ugo Dossi specifically designed the exhibition of his works at Museum Würth taking into account the available exhibition space, inviting the museum visitors on an «immaterial trip to Egypt» to see a world full of signs and wonders.

Ugo Dossi (*1943) studied at Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and at Accademia di Brera in Milan. He divides his life and work between Munich, Murnau and his studio in the Dolomite Mountains. His installations were on display at documenta 6 and documenta 8 in Kassel, at the Venice Biennale (1986 and 2011) and at numerous solo exhibitions in international museums.

Works on Display