Fine Arts Days
As part of the visual arts days of the state capital Saarbrücken, the Cultural site Wintringer Chapel will be open on Sunday, September 28, from 10 am to 6 pm. The current annual exhibition "Zukunft Schreiben" by Monika Schrickel and the installation "Die Grenzen des Wachstums" by Hermann Bigelmayr will be on display.
Monika Schrickel - FIGURES Numerus
The eternal rhythm of numbers
April 12, 2025 marked the third anniversary of Monika Schrickel's death. To mark the occasion, a new work by artist Monika Schrickel is being shown at the Wintringer Chapel Cultural site as part of the annual exhibition "Writing the Future". The theme is the number as a complement to the word, which comes to the fore in some of the artist's special works on site.
Number line 2012 | 1 -19180, blue ink on Japanese paper L: 4.60 m
"Number is the essence of all things", Pythagoras is said to have said as early as the 6th century BC. Words are indisputably closely linked to the laws of numbers, which write the future in their own way. King Solomon (10th century BC) even associates the knowledge of numbers with the wisdom of God, who is said to have ordered everything by measure, number and weight.
Monika Schrickel was evidently inspired not only by the aesthetics of depicting sequences of numbers, but also by their symbolic meaning, which sometimes goes beyond the mathematical function described. The artist was aware that numbers express the certain laws of earthly systems.
Against this backdrop, she began a unique work in her artistic oeuvre in 2012. She began to write the "future" with numbers in large format. In months of work, she created a 4.60 m long sheet of Japanese paper on which she wrote the numbers from 0 to 19180 consecutively in blue ink.
Against the masonry of the late Gothic sacred building, the ethereal work of art resonates with the idea of numerical harmony, which was almost omnipresent in the Middle Ages and was considered an expression of divine harmony and cosmic order. The work has the effect of a pictorial polyphony in the room that involuntarily captivates the viewer, as if to remind them of the unstoppable flow of time.
Peter Michael Lupp, Curator
The symbolism/mysticism of numbers
In contrast to the mathematical understanding of numbers, in which numbers have purely formal functions, number mysticism assigns additional meanings to certain numbers. In customs, mysticism and religion, numbers charged with meaning appear as symbols, metaphors or in the structure of rites (e.g. oracles) or buildings. These numbers are given a specific character, an individual quality and characteristics, such as "masculine", "feminine", "auspicious" or "sacred", which can vary depending on the culture. Value judgments about things are often transferred to the numbers associated with them or, conversely, value judgments about numbers are transferred to the things associated with them.
Almost all number symbolic systems consider the single-digit numbers from one to seven as well as ten. This is probably due to the phases of the moon and the cultural conventions derived from them, such as the seven-day week. The number ten is also fundamental to the decimal system, based on the ten-fingeredness of the hands.
Number symbolism is widespread in numerous cultures and religions around the world. According to Konrad Goehl, especially in the Middle Ages, authors of scientific texts often strove for a harmony of numbers and numerology. The first comprehensive system of Western numerology based on symbolic biblical exegesis was developed by Pietro Bongo at the end of the 16th century.