Manfred Kage

Manfred Paul Kage (born October 4, 1935 in Delitzsch ; † August 9, 2019 in Tübingen ) was a German chemist , photographer , author, filmmaker and artist.

Life

Kage learned chemical engineering in Stuttgart and completed a private degree in art and philosophy. He began to experiment with microphotography and developed his own apparatus for this, such as B. the so-called " polychromator ", a kind of optical synthesizer. He founded the Institute for Scientific Photography and Cinematography and the KAGEs MIKROVERSUM Museum . At the beginning of the seventies he bought the Weißenstein Castle and restored it.

Kage is regarded as one of the most outstanding personalities in artistic and scientific microphotography and one of the most important pioneers of video and multimedia art. He is also described as one of the few contemporary “all-round geniuses”.

Kage has shown his art since 1957 in the context of subjective and generative photography as well as apparatus art in numerous national and international exhibitions, performances and events (including the Expo, the Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Olympic Games, in ZKM and ars electronica).

Since 1961, Kage has participated as a ZERO artist in exhibitions, performances and multimedia presentations by this group of artists.

As early as 1961, Kage proclaimed his manifesto "For the realization of the optical concert". It was Kage's intention to investigate natural processes in the micro range and the like. a. using an “optical synthesizer” developed by him in an aesthetic-artistic performance, played like a kind of piano keyboard. With this he enabled the audience to perceive his space-time dimensions in the phenomenological consciousness.

This is what Kage et al. a. with self-made unique projectors, video synthesizers built especially for him as well as film and photo recordings of microscopic structures (e.g. crystalline structures). These elements, which were often shown in connection with an eight-channel light organ developed by Kage, could even then be played interactively in real time.

Manfred P. Kage's “Optical Concert” is nowadays implemented in a modern way as a media, abstract light space or large projection on domed roofs, in natural spaces and architectural buildings by the Kage family (family artist collective “K4i”, Manfred P. Kage, Christina Kage, Ninja-Nadine Kage and Oliver Kage) mostly presented as a synaesthetic interactive performance with live music by various music artists. Manfred P. Kages' original idea of ​​playing the optical effects in real time like a kind of keyboard is still a central part of the performance today.

In 1964, Manfred P. Kage was the first artist in the world to have the opportunity to present his crystal-optical works of art on the first cilchrome print emulsion developed by Ciba in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Zurich.

In 1966, Kage came up with the terms “Science Art” and “Modern Science Art” and coined them for his art. He later added "Video Science Art" and "REM Science Art" to these terms.

In his special field of work, the synthesis of science and art, he made early and very important achievements, as well as pioneering inventions and innovations.

From the 1960s onwards, artistic films were made such as “The Feather - A Wonder of Nature”, a 35mm film for which Kage developed a 1/200 zoom drive, “Astropoetikon” with Herbert W. Franke and the film “Impressions de la Haute Mongolie ”by Salvador Dalí (director: J. Montes-Baquer , special effects and micro-recordings in film and image: Manfred P. Kage).

Kage also developed special effects for science fiction films such as “Das Gespinst” and “Voices of the Sylphids” (scripts: HW Franke) or “Solaris” by MP Kage and B. Kessler in honor of Stanislav Lem.

Kage was the first private person in Germany to own a scanning electron microscope. He also invented color directly on the SEM in the early 1970s.

As a world exclusive, Kage's colored moon rock photos (photographed with his polychromator) were published in 1971 in the magazine “Bild der Zeit”. These recordings are unique in their form to this day.

From 1992–1993 Manfred P. Kage held a visiting professorship at the University of Design in Karlsruhe, where he developed a subject for scientific and experimental photography in the field of media art.

Since the beginning of his professional activity, Kage has worked in scientific and technical research, including: a. For decades in a laboratory at the University of Paris, researching marine microorganisms. Kage had close research collaborations with numerous documentary filmmakers (such as Heinz Sielmann), research institutes and universities. From the mid-1990s he also worked here with his second wife Ingetraut-Christina Kage, particularly in the field of plankton science.

For more than 20 years, Kage was also a freelance researcher at the Institute for Lightweight Structures (IL) with the architect Frei Otto and with “ Bild der Wissenschaft ” in Stuttgart.

Kage was one of the microphotographers who u. a. showed for the first time color SEM images, moving SEM images, microvideo in HD and 4K, artistic portraits of microorganisms and microscopic gigapixel images.

Kage was appointed member of the DGPh ( German Society for Photography ), the DFA (German Photographic Academy), member and part of the founding team of the BFF (Professional Association of Free Photographers and Film Designers eV), member of the DGP (German Society for Protozoology), member of the DGE ( German Society for Electron Microscopy ) and honorary member of the TMG (Tübingen Microscopic Society).

Extensive retrospectives were dedicated to him in the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation (curator: Dr. Christiane Stahl) in 2010 and in the Deutsches Museum in Munich in 2012 (curator: Dr. Cornelia Kemp).

The exhibition "here (and) in the 70s - cultural institutions and their protagonists in Esslingen and the surrounding area" honored Manfred P. Kage in the Villa Merkel in Esslingen (curator: Christian Gögger) as a pioneer of video and multimedia art.

Starting in 2015, Deutsche Post dedicated a special stamp series “Microworlds” to Kage with 10 stamps from his microphotographic motifs.

In addition to numerous awards, Manfred P. Kage received the Culture Prize of the German Society for Photography (DGPh) in 2012 .

Until shortly before his death in 2019, Manfred P. Kage created new developments for his artistic microphotography, microvideo, video and multimedia art.

Weissenstein Castle in Baden-Württemberg is now the seat of the Manfred P. Kages artistic collection and houses the KAGE Microphotography company with the "Institute for Scientific Photography" and the attached image archive, as well as the KAGEs MIKROVERSUM Museum , which focuses in particular on Manfred P. Kages' life's work and dedicates himself to his artistic-scientific work.

Kage's second wife Christina, his daughter Ninja-Nadine and his son-in-law Oliver Kage worked closely with Kage in the field of research, scientific photography and artistic work and developed special artistic and scientific projects together with him. Today you continue his life's work and his visions with KAGE microphotography and the museum in Schloss Weißenstein, look after the artistic collection and the image archive and present Manfred P. Kage's artistic work.

Web links

• Website of the family business KAGE Microfotography GbR
• Science Art website by Manfred P. Kage
• Weissenstein Castle website
• Website optical concert - family artist collective K4i