Visit which will inform my research: Pirelli Hangar Bicocca Milan 01.04.2023 ANSELM KIEFER, The Seven Heavenly Palaces 2004-2015 [online] At: https://pirellihangarbicocca.org/en/anselm-kiefer/ (Accessed 13.12.2023)
From the accompanying installation information:
“Anselm Kiefer, The Seven Heavenly, Palaces 2004-2015
PERMANENT INSTALLATION
Realized in 2004, for the opening of Pirelli Hangar-Bicocca, The Seven Heavenly Palaces by Anselm Kiefer (b. Donaueschingen, Germany, 1945) is a permanent site-specific installation. The work, entitled for the palaces described in the ancient Hebrew Kabbalistic text Sefer Hechalot ("The Book of the Palaces") from the fourth-fifth century AD, encapsulates the main subjects of the artist's practice: an interest in ancient religions and, above all, Judaism; the representation of the West and its ruins after the Second World War; the comparison of past, present and future; large architectural constructions as man's attempt to ascend to the divine. Each of The Seven Heavenly Palaces, measuring between 14 and 18 metres in height, is made of reinforced concrete using the angular construction modules of shipping containers and is characterized by the presence of objects that refer to art history and the Jewish tradition.
Five large canvases - produced between 2009 and 2013, and now exhibited for the first time – enrich and expand the permanent work, forming together with the "towers" a single installation entitled / Sette Palazzi Celesti 2004-2015. This additional display, inaugurated over Fall 2015, reconsiders and confers through painting new meaning on the artwork, further highlighting central considerations, such as the relationship between man and nature; or references to the history of thought and western philosophy.
Based on a project by Lia Rumma Additional display curated by Vicente Todolí”
As Anselm Kiefer once said, “Ruins are the beginning, not the end.” After 2022, my country, Russia, creates only Ruins. If our world does not plunge into the abyss of atomic dust, then the time will come when we, people who sincerely love Russian culture and believe in its best, will have to rethink and reevaluate our history and what happened in it. Many contemporary artists born in Germany note the fact that at some point they were forced to understand and evaluate for themselves the history of Nazi Germany. Anselm Kiefer chose the theme of The Seven Heavenly Palaces for a reason. This is his personal passion for ancient history and at the same time, this is the construction of new ruins intended for modern people.
It will be extremely informative for my research to use an artist's approach. The way Anselm Kiefer works with history, he somehow closes it into a spiral. He doesn't directly state, this was good, this was bad, but only outlines the topic. There was history, people did it, and now we still have ruins in front of us. But these are recreated ruins and we are talking about them. It's as if humanity needs to be brought to destruction first to realize the problem. It is precisely this limit of conflict between destruction and creation that I need to find in my works. At what point does a person stop destroying? By recreating destruction, is it possible to rethink the past and the future?
Visit and Ideas which will expand or challenge my ideas and/or assumptions: Art Karlsruhe, Germany 07.05.2023 Stephan Paul Schneider, „DUA: o.T.02-b (Grid)“, 2020 Archival-Inkjet-Print, Bütten/Aludibond, Diasec, Abfallholz, Acryl, 166 x 116,6x8,5 cm
«„Schneider fotografiert (...) Bilder, projiziert sie (...) auf die Leinwand und malt sie dann, wobei er keinen Wert auf detailgetreue Wiedergabe legt. Er fotografiert seine (gegenständlichen und ungegenständlichen) Bilder und übersetzt sie in Drucke. Er fertigt Zeichnungen und Aquarelle an und zieht sie fotografisch hoch. Genregrenzen interessieren Schneider nicht.“ Inge Pett, in ihrem Text „Transformationsprozesse“ in art-in-berlin, über die Ausstellung „Erinnerung und Entwurf – (Stille)“ - Stephan Paul Schneider, Galerie Michaela Helfrich, Berlin 2017» RETHINK PAINTING | STEPHAN PAUL SCHNEIDER, 10.05.2022 [online] Athttps://www.hbk-essen.de/de/news/rethink-painting-stephan-paul-schneider/209 (Accessed 15.12.2023)
“Artie Vierkant's Image Objects was a body of sculptural works that existed between the physical object and the mediated digital image, and through their existence highlighted the increasingly fluid boundary between the two.” IMAGE OBJECTS, ARTIE VIERKANT, 2011 - ONGOING [online] At: https://anthology.rhizome.org/image-objects(Accessed 13.12.2023)
Artist Artie Vierkant uses augmented reality to put his art in your hands. Photo: Artie Vierkant. (Courtesy Perrotin) Artist Artie Vierkant uses augmented reality to put his art in your hands By Drew Zeiba • March 13, 2018 • Art, East [online] At: https://www.archpaper.com/2018/03/artie-vierkant-augmented-reality-art-hands/ (Accessed 15.12.2023)
The work I saw by the artist Stephan Paul Schneider caught my attention because of the mixture of materials. There is photography, drawing, paint and sculptural elements. This work was immediately associated with the work and theory of Artie Vierkant. This artist blurs the line between the digital image and the real one. This is like the next step of Stephan Paul Schneider's work. For my practice, these two examples are provocative and challenging regarding the contemporary world. Artie Virkant's works are bright, positive, which reflects the digital reality; everything is always embellished and improved, and at the same time, in my opinion, because of this brightness the works are attractive to the modern viewer. In my practice, I would like not to appear to the viewer as a theoretical, colourless snob, but on the contrary. Through a progressive understanding of materials and future trends, I would translate these findings into understandable and attractive language for the viewer. Because the main task for me is to “save” people obsessed with aggression and Nazism in my country, and in any country where there is no tolerance and there is a cult of traditions with a denial of progress. Perhaps through a mix of sculpture, digital reality, installation, photography, literature, music and performance I can find the right combination and form a theory of the current state.
In addition, when analyzing these works and artists cited, I ask myself how deep my understanding of the medium is, how much formulated assumptions are discussed in my works, and to what extent I need to experiment.
Comments