Artworks
Artworks created aboard the scientific vessel SONNE
Roman was mandated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (Leipzig/DE) to accompany the scientific expedition SO 268/3 on the research vessel SONNE as an “artistic mediator”, crossing the Pacific Ocean from Vancouver (Canada) to Singapore.
He is currently developing artworks with the materials collected during the expedition (water samples, deep-sea sediments).
Chameleon Skin (Readymade)
Chameleon Skin is a readymade which Roman brought back from the expedition across the Pacific Ocean. Discover its story during an atelier visit!
It was exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina (Serbia) as part of the international festival DANUBE DIALOGUES.
First LEFT HAND drawing
Born left-handed, Roman Kroke switched to his right hand at the age of 5. His grandmother had told him that the left side of his face would rot if he continued to use his left hand (!).
During the Corona pandemic, Roman began to bring his left hand back to life. Consumer Temple is the first sketch done with his "resurrected phoenix". It was part of a commission by the Musées Gadagne (Historical Museum of Lyon/FR).
Sketch & Story
Sketch & Story is a series of charcoal drawings. It is the very first work created as a cooperation between Roman's left and right hand (work in process).
The sketches show real and fictional characters, accompanied by texts which suggest fragmentary echoes of their invisible stories.
Roman writes them with his poetic accomplice TARANTULA, a historic typewriter born in the 1960s, in the same town on the German North Sea coast as him: Wilhelmshaven.
You may already discover several episodes of this series on Roman's instagram:
Biounity Puzzle (photo series)
Biounity Puzzle is a photo series centering around Roman’s central metaphor of the HEXAGON. The photos were taken during (1) his crossing of the Pacific Ocean on board of the German research vessel SONNE from Vancouver to Singapore and (2) his freediving with whale-sharks in cooperation with marine biologists of the NGO LAMAVE (research station in Pintuyan/Philippines).
The origin of the hexagon symbol lies in the skin pattern of Roman’s chameleon drawing Archaius polyethylenus, a utopian-dystopian species invented following his research trips to scientific laboratories in Germany and France; these works have, among others, been exhibited at the international festival The Universal Sea - Pure or Plastic? in Budapest (HUN), the international scientific conference EcoBIM (University of Bordeaux/FR) and the international scientific conference MICRO 2018 (Lanzarote/ESP). For more details, please see Roman’s publication below:
Drawings for arte.tv
Roman created drawings for several documentary movies broadcasted on Europe’s leading cultural channel arte.tv – about the diaries of Etty Hillesum, the German resistance movement Die Weiße Rose and the biography of Sarah Lichtsztejn-Montard (director: André Bossuroy).
The movies are available for online-streaming on the arte.tv homepage in a French and a German version.
Dance of Resistance - a biography in movement
The Dance of Resistance was a commissioned work for the Adolf-Reichwein Association. It had entrusted Roman to develop an artistic approach to the biography of the German pedagogue and resistance fighter Adolf Reichwein (1898-1944).
The central metaphors come from the fields of dance and artistry, especially the concept of flexibility & resistance in the physical as well as the mental sense – inspired by a cooperation with the Berlin State Ballet School and School of Artistry. Roman presented the drawing on occasion of two conferences at the Museum of European Cultures (Berlin/DE) and, as part of the "Meet-Art" program, at the École de commerce Emilie-Gourd (Geneva/CH). On the basis of this work, Roman also led a seminar at the Berlin University of the Arts for students coming of diverse disciplines (dance, music, fine arts, architecture etc.).