The "departure from the picture," which was decisive for the second half of the 20th century, led to an expansion of pictorial space through light. Brigitte Kowanz has made an autonomous Austrian contribution to this international tendency. She has not only extended the two paradigms of the concept of the image -- "colour is light" (Van Gogh) and "light is colour" (Moholy-Nagy) -- with real electric light, but has also placed the word alongside colour and light. Her light works are colour and word works. In doing so, she continues the language-analytical and language-critical tendency of the Vienna Circle, Austria's leading contribution to the philosophy of the 20th century. She works with the medium of light not only as an image continuum, but also as literature. She uses light not only to expand the image into space, but also uses words to expand the space of thought. That is why, through the use of mirrors as well as through poetic

techniques, she develops self-referential systems. Her light objects and installations therefore go beyond their appealing aesthetic effect. Her conceptual-analytical methodology examines the mechanisms of codes, such as language and writing. Through their deconstruction, multiplication, and isolation, she analyses the language game as a cultural and social game. Her neon lettering reflects the complexity of communication. Kowanz also shapes three-dimensional spaces with light, primarily with white rather than coloured light, or creates virtual light spaces using glass and mirrors. This coupling of light and virtual spaces, of word and image, has enabled Kowanz to make the boundaries between real and virtual, between outside and inside, open and closed, permeable. Through her works, she has established a new relationship between painting and architecture, between light and architecture.

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