Bernd Lieven - KIRMESBUDEN Projekt Kirchmes Eiskonditorei No.I s

Fair booths
Project Kirchmess

Ice Cream Confectionery No I Edition 1/5

FUJIFILM Crystal Archive DPII Digital Professional Matt Paper, 234g/m²
Original Photo Print 2025, capture date 2010
Sheet size, 40 x 60 cm, 1 cm white border.
Motif size 38 x 58 cm
Without frame
Signed, numbered with stamp

The artist Bernd Lieven photographs gardens, industrial sites marked by time and reclaimed by nature. He originally develops subjects on a canvas coated with photo emulsion, which through overpainting with a subjective color nuance creates a new reality.

In his church service project, he has a different goal: he commissions paintings.
Originally, the Kirmes, short for Kirchmess, was a festival commemorating the consecration of the village church. Over time, the church folk festivals gradually evolved into a fairground idyll with show attractions, throwing and shooting booths. The fair booths listed here seem still to be sleeping, all the shutter openings are closed. The paintings on the facades hint at what lies behind the closed windows.
The photographs of the Düsseldorf fair from 2010 show different architectures, all sharing the expectation of a colorful celebration.


Born in Mönchengladbach
Studying fine arts at the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.
Master student of Prof. Karl Marx
Numerous exhibitions at home and abroad that explore the reciprocal relationship between photography and painting.

Lives and works in Düsseldorf.

2022 Gallery Schloss Neersen, 'Plant Backdrops'
2018/19 Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, 'View - Insight'
2018 Düsseldorf City Savings Bank, 'Gardens and Landscapes'
2016 Düsseldorf State Parliament, 'Lift up the door, make the gates wide...'
2009 Galerie Schreier & von Metternich, Düsseldorf 'Water Landscapes'
2009 Maxhaus, Düsseldorf 'Lichtung'
2008 Rhineland Regional Museum, Bonn 'Gardens and Spaces'
2008 Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken 'Fotosynthesen' (with Otto Steinert)