Sascha Dettbarn – Between Gesture, the Unconscious, and Sound

The paintings of Sascha Dettbarn emerge from an intuitive, automatic process in which conscious control is relinquished in favor of inner impulses. Drawing from Surrealist automatism, Abstract Expressionism, and European Informel, his works unfold as dense fields of gesture, color, and material intensity. Dynamic movements and layered chromatic spaces create thresholds where psychic processes, mnemonic fragments, and archetypal images assume visual form.

Dettbarn’s practice deliberately eschews narration and figuration, opening a field of pure presence. Painting becomes an existential act—an exploration of the liminal zones where the visible and invisible, the conscious and unconscious enter into fleeting dialogue. In this sense, his work resists representation in favor of a mode of inquiry into perception, selfhood, and world.

This search extends into Dettbarn’s sound project Sopora, whose immersive, ambient soundscapes function similarly as spaces of transition. Image and sound are interwoven into a holistic artistic practice that transcends language, offering a contemplative encounter with both inner and outer realities. His paintings and soundworks alike invite us to sense the hidden dimensions of being—fleeting manifestations of a steady inner whisper.