Passion becomes Baroque

With more than 450,000 followers, he is perhaps one of the most authoritative and certainly one of the most original voices in the popularization of Baroque. The Bavarian Constantin Pelka, through his highly visited profile, narrates the complexity and beauty of an artistic period often considered niche, making it accessible and captivating for a wide community of enthusiasts.

But how did his passion begin, how did he transform it into a professional endeavor, and what is the creative process behind his content and the role of Baroque in the contemporary world? He explains it himself, in a journey through art, architecture, and innovation, told with the unique sensitivity of someone who lives every day surrounded by timeless beauty.

When and how did you discover your passion for Baroque art? Was there a specific moment or work that ignited this spark? In short, why Baroque?
CP: My first real memory of Baroque is rather spooky: as a child, I went on a guided tour of the stuffed parade horses of the 18th-century Margrave of Ansbach. They were huge to me back then, and had fur like tigers. Somehow an extraterrestrial appearance. The fact that baroque can be so completely different from my life didn't seem to put me off. There was a very specific point that prompted me to share my cultural excursions on Instagram. During Corona, traveling was hardly possible, and museums and other cultural highlights were closed. In Germany, only churches were still open. Because there was suddenly a lot of time, I started making my trips to baroque churches more regularly. In the beginning, Instagram was simply an archive for my own memories with some background information for art history nerds. And then these baroque posts suddenly became really popular. Since then I have been able to deliver fresh baroque content, as I have been surrounded by baroque art and culture since my childhood and visit a lot of places that are hardly known.

Baroque is a complex and fascinating artistic period: what do you think makes it unique compared to other genres or historical eras?
CP: Baroque is like a rabbit hole. Baroque is often about creating virtual worlds into which the viewer is drawn and in which they lose themselves. For example, ceiling paintings don't just make the roof look prettier from below, they suddenly become a window into heaven that seems to float in front of you in a very real way thanks to the sophisticated perspective. Baroque space is often immersive and physically draws you deeper into the story being told. I think there is also a bridge between this era and our digital world. What many people don't realize is that Baroque can also be found worldwide, like in India. For me, Baroque is so fascinating because it is the first global style in the history of art. Sometimes the baroque style from Europe is mixed with the ancient design of indigenous people. As you can see from the fantastic baroque artworks in Mexico. The Baroque era was very mobile, just like our time. The great Baroque genius Bernini, originally from Rome, was invited to the king in France and worked there. Ideas, materials, artists and craftsmen travelled and were exchanged. The period between 1600–1800 was very turbulent in Europe, both socially and economically. However, this did not stop the exchange of ideas and designs, which led to some pretty crazy innovations and bold new creations. To me, Baroque art is about exploring the emotions with which we perceive ourselves and the world, while creating new ways to feel and experience.

You decided to bring your passion to social media: what motivated you to become a creator and to narrate Baroque through digital platforms?
CP: In the beginning, the motivation was simply to have an archive of my own excursions to special Baroque places. As this content didn't exist on Instagram before, my posts quickly got a huge response. Of course, this is an external incentive to explore more and more places in Europe. For me personally, however, it's more the attraction of understanding the connections, for example a building in Catania that was inspired by a building in Salzburg. Some Baroque themes are so distant from our time that I'm simply curious to see if I can bridge the gap—for instance, making a pulpit shaped like a ship comprehensible. Complexity takes time, which is why it's important to me to take my community with me on my travels and to keep showing them new places and exploring the similarities and differences with them.

How do you decide what to showcase, and which tools do you use to bring your ideas to life?
CP: I usually get up very early and go to bed very late to capture the best light at the baroque locations. I have an app that shows me the position of the sun, which helps me to calculate where the sun will fall and when. When light meets art and architecture, it changes everything. I usually choose places according to my own interests. So I try to visit all the places that an artist like Tiepolo has designed or all the important sights in a region. In the coming year, I will be focusing on Baroque gardens in Europe. My equipment to capture the places is very simple. I have an iphone for my videos and a Sony 7 Alpha IV for photos.

With almost 500,000 followers on Instagram, your community is highly engaged: did you expect such a strong response to such a niche topic?
CP: It was quite a surprise for me. The Baroque era wasn't even a big topic in my art history degree. But the visual fascination of the Baroque inspires many contemporary designers, architects and fashion people from all over the world in my community. I get a lot of messages and I endeavor to answer them all. It's important to me to maintain personal contact with my followers, even with a large community. Thanks to my account, I've got to know a lot of other Baroque enthusiasts in Europe and I probably wouldn't have been able to visit many of the places I've been to without their help.

In your research and storytelling journey, have you come across a particular work, place, or artist that surprised you the most?
CP: Alongside the great artistic minds of the era, such as Rubens, Bernini, Le Brun or Fischer von Erlach, there are also more inconspicuous artists who have gone their own way, such as the Bohemian artist Santini-Aichel, who mixed the Baroque style with Gothic forms to create an eccentric style. It feels like his works shouldn't even exist, because we always clearly separate art styles in our minds, which is not the case in reality. Artists have always been inspired by their surroundings. Two of the architect's places should definitely be visited: the star-shaped World Heritage Site Zelena Hora and the majestic Kladruby monastery church near Prague, both locations in the Czech Republic.

Is Baroque still relevant today? How do you see its influence in contemporary design, art, or pop culture?
CP: After the rationality of Bauhaus, many people are longing for emotionality again. I think the great revival of baroque as a style is yet to come. Fashion houses such as Dolce and Gabbana or Schiaparelli have been picking up on individual elements of the style for years. However, baroque is often simply associated with opulence. In my eyes, baroque is much more than that.
Sometimes the points of contact between yesterday and today are surprising: a few months ago, I had a very intense conversation with a car designer about reflections. He told me about the beauty of a reflection of the surroundings in a car and I told him how important reflections are in the Baroque period because they connect inside and outside with each other. The point is that the things around us are not just objects that we use, but have a meaning in their relation.

That's a fascinating perspective. Baroque, then, isn't just about aesthetics but also about creating deeper connections. How do you translate these ideas into contemporary projects?
CP: I've always wondered why so few people view baroque as a rich source of inspiration for contemporary design. Therefore I started the 'New Tapestries' project to combine Baroque with the present day. Tapestries as a kind of furniture for the walls are super mobile, take up little space and are back in fashion. Together with a Berlin weaving artist, I have developed tapestries with baroque motifs (dolphin and lobster), which are produced in Como. It is important to me that I myself build a bridge with my work and that the motifs work in a contemporary environment. I think it's important that art doesn't just stand around in a museum, but has its place in the center of life, in the living room.

In your posts, I've noticed a strong focus on Germany and Austria. I expected more Sicily or Lecce. Is this a deliberate choice, or are they simply harder to access?
CP: My focus is on special architecture and art throughout Europe. As I live in Munich, the closer neighborhood is, of course, often featured on my channel. So far, I have presented destinations in Portugal, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic and Italy. In fact, another aspect is that the management of sights is different in other countries, and it takes a long time to identify the right people to get permission to get into the right spaces at the right time of the day without tourists.

Telling the story of a historical period on social media is no small feat. What has been the biggest challenge in making Baroque accessible and engaging for your audience?
CP: For me, it's actually less challenging to share my enthusiasm about baroque art with my audience than it is to organize getting to these places to record undisturbed in the best natural light set up and quietness.
What actually surprises many people is that I spend most of my time working with emails and phone calls and not at the locations. It still takes a lot of persuasion to convince museums and cultural institutions to open their doors to a cultural influencer.

If you could take your followers to a baroque site that moves you deeply, which one would you choose, and what would you share with them about it?
CP: Of course, it is a challenging task for me to decide on a location for Baroque, a style that can be found all over the world. Therefore, I would like to name three wonders of the baroque world. The first is the Isola Bella in Lake Maggiore (Italy), with its palace and enchanted garden laid out like a baroque ship in the middle of the lake. The place is unique worldwide, especially for its amazing tapestries and the garden with its view over the lake and the mountains. The second wonder of the baroque world for me is the library of the University of Coimbra (Portugal) with its magnificent housing for the knowledge of the world at that time. You might think that the place where you read books doesn't need to look particularly beautiful, as you're busy reading anyway. But the library room is like an incredibly chic throne room, where knowledge is both beautiful and powerful. For me, the third wonder of the Baroque world is Melk Abbey on a cliff above the river Danube in Austria. The imposing landscape is the setting for the spectacular architecture. As a visitor, you walk through the architecture like a stage with spectacular views of the landscape.