Light Spaces: Tamar Frank & Popel Coumou

Museum Hilversum begins the new cultural season with the duo exhibition 'Light Spaces: Tamar Frank & Popel Coumou'. Frank's new site-specific light installation engages in a dialogue with the museum's architectural space, while Coumou's work manages to transform the two-dimensional into a spatial experience. 'The artists share a fascination with the changing colors of the sky and a quest for the spatial experience,' said museum director Fleur van Muiswinkel. 'Not only a challenge for your eyes, but also for your sense of space.'

'Light is not only the essence of seeing but is also the starting point of photography,' Van Muiswinkel says. 'Tamar Frank and Popel Coumou explore and take us into the awareness of a spatial experience. What is the effect of light and line play on our subconscious? And how does the color of light or plane affect your experience of space?' Coumou's more recent collages and the color scheme of Frank's light installation can largely be traced back to their shared fondness for the changing colors of the sky. 'The color palette on display from sunrise to sunset creates an inexhaustible source of combinations for both women,' Van Muiswinkel said. 'In addition, the artists share a passion for the experience of three-dimensional space. Each in their own way, they offer you as a visitor an unforgettable experience.'

Tamar Frank

Tamar Frank (b. 1974) is one of our country's leading light artists. In her work, she explores the interaction between light and color. Over the years, her light sculptures have developed into more than three-dimensional objects: they influence the experience of space through their 'coloring'. She searches for ways to offer the viewer a new, different reality. In Museum Hilversum, light, color, interplay of lines and continuously changing light intensity create an immersive experience of the space. In addition to the light installation, one of the "In Lucem" (2019) panels included in the collection of Museum Hilversum will also be on display.

Popel Coumou

Artist and photographer Popel Coumou (b. 1978) has been creating her own shaped reality since 2003. She plays with the main elements of photography: light, paper and the perception of reality. By exposing her self-made collages in a focused way, she adds the third dimension to the paper relief and the flat surface comes to life.

In her more recent work, the photograph, normally seen as the final product, becomes the starting point. The layers from which she builds her latest interiors are aerial images. These provide natural color transitions and create an illusion of depth, while the texture of the paper itself is clearly visible. Coumou has a penchant for empty spaces, graphic lines and compositions bordering on abstraction.

Popel Coumou - 184 Untitled 2023