‘Monument to the Unknown Iceberg’
Installation by Ralf Tekaat
3 December 2025 to 24 January 2026
Ralf Tekaat is an illustrator. His preferred medium is pencil on paper. His pencil drawings go far beyond the lightness and fleetingness of most drawings. Layer upon layer of hatching are superimposed, gradually creating volume and forming objects or rocks.
For several years, the focus has been on organic constellations and structures. Large-format ‘massives’ led him to glaciers, ice and icebergs. Central to this is the series of drawings ‘Monument to the Unknown Iceberg’ (since 2015). These icebergs are created without any pictorial template, solely from the drawing process. Hatching, overlays and abrasions create volumes that could perhaps be conceived as icebergs. The icebergs dissolve into abstract white negative forms or are only recognisable as afterimages beneath the black hatching that engulfs them.
His interest in ice and icebergs led him to spend time working in Spitsbergen in 2017.
Tekaat studied fine art at the University of the Arts Bremen under Wolfgang Schmitz and Paco Knöller. After graduating in 2002, he took part in Paco Knöller’s master class. Since 2005, he has held various teaching positions at the University of the Arts Bremen. He has been awarded several prizes, including the Bremen Prize for Fine Arts in 2003, the annual scholarship of the Kunstfonds Foundation in 2006, the annual scholarship of the State of Lower Saxony in 2008, and the Heitland Honeur in 2022. He has also completed various artist residencies in Oslo, New York, and Spitsbergen.
To the exhibition ZONE we serve the menu
NORDIC NOIR
‘Iceberg’
Iceberg lettuce, chicory and endive salad with potato purée and yoghurt and verjus dressing
Pickled mushrooms and red onions with miso, soy sauce and balsamic vinegar
2024 Côte du Rhône blanc AOC, Domaine Roche Audran
Confit cod with kombu seaweed, mussel broth and ginger
2018 Pinot Gris S, Hubert Lay, Kaiserstuhl
Leg of venison with porcini mushrooms, redcurrant sauce with crème double,
parsnip purée and cranberries with orange
2022 Domaine Arsac, les Aoutres, Syrah, Ardèche
Ice cream, meringue, cream and chocolate