Die Rote Linie

In winter 2022, Bernd Caspar Dietrich developed the series “Die Rote Linie”. The examination of his own Red Lines, which have marked visible and invisible borders, as well as the multiple red lines that have been so obviously crossed in recent years, have given rise to a series that deals with geopolitical questions and even moral settlements.

Following on from "BetonGold", with "Rote Linie" BCD negotiates a multitude of border shifts, transgressions, seizures and assertions. How does a red line apply to flora and fauna, how does it oscillate between law and order, between abuse and morality, between greed and goodness?

Pandemic, global warming, worldwide wars, violence against women and children, poverty and lack of opportunity tighten the world into scarlet lines. BCD tells wordless stories with craftsmanship and conceptual metaphors.

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From the series Rote Linie - Kardinal 2022 140 x 150cm
Concrete, clay, pigment, acyl, and gold on canvas + aluminium rod.
(fifth image above)

The picture illustrates the process of erosion faced by the various religious communities using the example of the Catholic Church. The colours purple and scarlet stand here for the hierarchy, gold for the claim to power of the top of the denomination and the redistribution process. Or in other words "preach water, drink wine...". The colour palette stands for the hierarchy's claim that "the best" is just enough for presentation. The Red Line hovers at a distance above the scenery and is variable, where it doesn't matter at all where the respective person draws his/her line, SHE always casts a shadow of the WHOLE.”

Bernd Caspar Dietrich, 2022

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From the series RoteLinie, 2022: "1948, Kalter Krieg".
(first picture above)

Black-red-gold are irreconcilably opposed to each other after the end of the 2nd World War. Colloquially it manifested itself in: "...then go to the EAST or the Eastern Bloc" ...We're moving to the golden WEST". From 1962 it became almost impossible due to the building of the Wall. It was THE red line between two ideological world views!

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From the series RoteLinie, 2022: "1494 - 46° 37'"
(seventh picture above)

In the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, Spain and Portugal define their colonial spheres of interest and divide the then known world into two parts. Spain receives the territories west of an imaginary north-south demarcation line (46° 37′ west longitude), Portugal the eastern territories.

This is the first Red Line in history!