Wilfrid Almendra ‘Where the Sun Pauses’

From 7 June to 17 August 2025, the Kunsthalle Lingen is presenting the first institutional solo exhibition in Germany by the Portuguese-French artist Wilfrid Almendra. It is entitled Where the Sun Pauses and will primarily present new works created for the exhibition. The title itself conveys a sense of suspension and transition and complements an evocative image that the entire exhibition offers. Where the Sun Pauses speaks of a moment that oscillates between two intensities, a kind of heat that lingers in the materials, in the gestures, in the landscapes that are characterised by the history of the rural population, the working class and the diaspora.

Installations made of glass modules that act as partitions in the space, complemented by dried wild plants such as poppies, convey the atmosphere of an allotment garden, as many workers still have them today. Broken windows tell of new greenhouses being built, plants being grown and harvested; worn trainers lie around and point to people who want to realise a dream. Fragile slugs dominate the scene and a peacock sits proudly on a ladder overlooking the action. Oranges scattered on the floor form a horizon line and link everything together. An atmosphere that is as wild as it is fragile. In addition, objects with the title ‘Model Home (Sonata)’ are presented. It refers to the sonata in several movements and evokes music. Partly brightly coloured glass and latticework in front of it tell of protection against the danger of burglary. They point both to detached houses and to the dream of working-class comfort.

A feeling of stillness and calm tension is conveyed - blurred scenes between reality and fiction, between the real and dreamed world are conjured up, in which a possible plot seems to be inexplicably interrupted. Just as the title ‘Where the Sun Pauses’ speaks of an intermediate state, the atmosphere of the exhibition conveys this. On the one hand, it criticises the dominance of neoliberalism and the widening gap between rich and poor. A light seems to penetrate through the surface permeated by past labour and lived memory, telling of a time and a space where the sun pauses.

The exhibition is generously supported by the Fondation Pernod Ricard, Paris, the Institut Francais, Berlin, the Krone Group, fair4you, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture, the district of Emsland, the city of Lingen (Ems) and the Heinrich Kampmann Cultural Foundation.

Sonata (detail), 2024. Photo: Nassimo Berthomme. Courtesy: Galerie Ceysson&Bénétière