Wolfgang Ullrich

Mapping the Artist

Politicians, managers and members of the upper class have it easy: If they wish to present themselves in a manner befitting their social standing, they have themselves photographed in front of an artwork. They know that it always looks impressive - implying education, authority, interest, affluence and grandeur - to stand in front of an abstract painting or large sculpture. But what do artists do to project a representative image of themselves? Of course they may choose art as their preferred accessory, but rather than thus making a mark as connoisseurs or avant-gardists of taste, all they reveal is a certain pride in their work. That\'s alright, but not particularly exciting: Clearly, there must be some other way. In »Exchange«, a project commenced in 2000, Valentina Seidel investigates which iconographies artists preferably utilize in photographic representations (of themselves). Her method recalls the »Chambre Close« series by Bettina Rheims, realised in the early 1990s. In this experiment, she approached women on the street and invited them to a hotel room for photo sessions, where they would then pose in front of the camera any way they liked. While some would respond shyly or coyly to the slightly awkward situation, others presented them-selves as vamps, femmes fatales or in ostentatious poses. So the photographer is not the director: Rheims was the initiator, defining the parameters within which the women could then present themselves. However, Valentina Seidel is also interested - as already implied by the project\'s title - in interplay, the individual exchange with the persons she photographs: She does not determine the places and poses on the photographs, but gives them the opportunity and inspiration to show themselves in their respective ambience. The artists, and occasionally, the designers, gallery owners and art mediators invited by Seidel to participate in »Exchange« are actively involved in all the phases of the project. They are even allowed to help select the final photograph for publication. As the artists themselves look for the places in which they want to be photographed, each picture to some extent reflects their work. Today, the artist is characterized not so much by the genius of his style, but rather by his investigative instinct. At a time in which the work of many artists is no longer defined by »originality«, but rather in terms of found material culled from a vast pool of existing sources, one also expects an artist to know his locality well - in terms of producing an apposite portrait of himself. The photos, it is hoped, express all the featured artists\' liking for the exceptional, unusual, and overlooked and, ideally, reflect the atmosphere pervading their respective works. Of course this claim can become a burden. In a few photos one senses the deliberation and trials before the photographer was allowed to release the shutter. The viewer may well think to himself, that it\'s typical for the artist to desperately put himself in the limelight as a mystery or outsider. More frequently however, in the photographs there develops a powerful atmosphere between the person depicted and the surrounding milieu - successfully depicting the singularity of the portrayed and his / her profession in a distinctive situation. Seeing Mischa Kuball and Reinhard Spieler, standing exhausted in a squash court, one is forced to imagine what kind of a duel has just taken place. This photograph stands for the archetypal relationship between artist and curator - documenting that both must be prepared to spend themselves - as competitive whilst being mutually interdependent to the extent of not being able to accomplish anything without each other. While this picture serves as a stark image for a much-discussed pheno-menon of contemporary art, other photographs make more overt reference to art history. For instance, the sculptor Robert Bridgewater and his girlfriend Kate McCaughey restage Jan van Eycks famous Arnolfini Marriage: Furnishing their newly renovated home, the couple coincidentally finds itself surrounded by objects that echo the middle-class domestic environment of the early 15th century. The photograph thus testifies to a long tradition, and rather than claiming total difference in an avantgarde manner, the artist sets great store on being perceived as working with an acute consciousness of historic continuity. It is noticeable that in most of the photographs the portrayed artists are in isolated, transitional or dysfunctional places: on the platform of a railway station, in the lobby of a bank, under a bridge, on a building site, in front of a rubbish heap or on the roof of a house. What makes these places appealing is that, although almost everywhere to be found, they feel slightly strange and at odds with everyday life. As undefined areas they resemble spaces of potential, transit or waiting - of a sojourn resisting precise definition: Those residing here do not succumb to the tyranny of movement, but rather enjoy openness and a certain state of contradictoriness. Undefined spaces such as these offer scope for experimentation and reflection. Sometimes they point beyond the present - to a past extant in traces and remnants; to a future in which the present emptiness might be filled and the transitory might give way to the permanent. In a novel by Peter Handke, the architect - impressed by all that already exists - no longer wants to construct his own buildings. He is particularly fas-cinated by the undefined spaces he calls »Leerbauten« (vacant edifices). His main project involves preparing the photo book titled »Niemandslandstreifen in Japan« (plots of no man\'s land in Japan). He plans a collection of photographs, showing »the terrain vague here and there between the almost seamlessly developed Japanese land lots«. Valentina Seidel\'s project offers a variant of such a photo book: It is not the architect, but rather the artists who track down the plots of no man\'s land. Photographed in this terrain vague, it is as if they wish to leave their mark upon the places they discovered. It is not surprising that artists identify with these indefinite places: They fulfil what is expected of art, namely to provide remedies against reductionisms. These locations are indeterminate to both therapeutic and liberating effect. They are characterized by »functionality without purpose«, which since Kant has been a criterion of art. In these places, freedom and independence unfold, and the resilience of the material can be transcended. Thus, besides revealing individual traits of the respective artists and other personas from the world of art, Valentina Seidel\'s photographs really do represent - along the social standing - their corresponding professions. The elective affinity between the persons photographed and their respective choice of setting testifies to a developed sense of ambiguity and openness. The observer may speculate as to what is just happening - or about to happen, indeed as to the scenery\'s possible meaning. The photographs therefore become kinds of pictorial puzzles analogous to works of art. They render visibly tangible the innate peculiarities not only of the artists, but also of art, ultimately returning to art its own iconography.

1  Peter Handke, »Mein Jahr in der Niemandsbucht«, Frankfurt / Main 1994, p. 586f.

Wolfgang Ulrich, born in 1967, studied philosophy and art history, works as a freelance author and management consultant. Since 2006 professor of art and media theory at the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe; numerous publications on art history and criticism, contemporary image worlds and affluence related phenomena.

 

Exchange Portraits with Artists
List of collaborating Artists 2000 - 2007

• Michael van Abeele artist, Rue Antoine Dansaert, Brussels (BE), 08/03
• Piotr Alban artist, »Stadtpalais« Sebastian-Bach-Straße, Leipzig (DE), 05/01
• Masanobu Ando artist and gallery owner, »Shinanoya« Udon-Restaurant, Tajimi (JP), 10/04
• Atelier Elf jewellery designers, Scheldestraat, Antwerp (BE), 08/03
• Tilo Baumgärtel painter, airport, Brandis-Waldpolenz (DE), 02/03
• Guillaume Bijl artist, with his daughter Nadja, Hoger Instituut voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp (BE), 07/03
• Robert Bridgewater with Kate Mac Caughey, sculptors, Daventry Street, Melbourne (AU), 01/05 (inspired by »Arnolfini Wedding«, Jan van Eyk)
• Marie-Puck Broodthaers gallery owner, Rue van Elewyck, Brussels (BE), 08/03 (photo taken with Marcel Broodthaers’ fish-eye lens)
• Peter Busch painter, »Sport Scheck« store, Leipzig (DE), 03/03
• Paul Casaer artist, race course, Brussels (BE), 07/03
• Karen Casey artist, Merri Creek Reserve, Melbourne (AU), 12/05
• Kate Mc Caughey with Robert Bridgewater, sculptors, Daventry Street, Melbourne (AU), 01/05 (inspired by »Arnolfini Wedding«, Jan van Eyk)
• Sadie Chandler artist, Parramatta Road, Sydney (AU), 01/05
• Jacques Charlier artist, Rue des Beaux-Arts, Liège (BE), 07/03
• Chat artist, Invalidenstraße, Berlin (DE), 05/00
• Hans D. Christ with Iris Dressler, curators, »Tropenhaus« Rombergpark, Dortmund (DE), 04/01
• Judith Cobb painter, Trenerry Crescent, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Katrina Daschner artist, Prater, Vienna (AT), 05/07
• Suzanne Davis curator, Sydney (AU), 01/05
• Henrik Duncker photographer, Meierstorf (DE), 04/04
• Richard Dunn artist, »Universal Machinery« site, Sydney (AU), 01/05
• Iris Dressler with Hans D. Christ, curators, »Tropenhaus« Rombergpark, Dortmund (DE), 04/01
• Michael Ebmeyer writer, with tapir Birte, zoo, Berlin (DE), 02/03
• William Eicholtz sculptor, Victoria Gardens, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Joaquim Pereira Eires artist, Parc Osseghem, Brussels (BE), 07/03
• Tom Fabritius painter, Theodor-Heuss Brücke, Leipzig (DE), 02/03
• Sissi Farassat artist and publisher, Strudlhofstiege, Vienna (AT), 05/07
• Masafumi Fukagawa curator, »Aka Renga Soko« Red Brick Warehouse, Yokohama (JP), 10/04
• Hannes Gamper artist, »Schloß Plüschow« artist residency, Plüschow (DE), 04/04
• Dora Garcia artist, Rue Max-Adolphe, Brussels (BE), 08/03
• Ralph Gerstenberg writer, Müggelsee, Berlin (DE), 05/03
• Andreas Grahl artist, Grünau, Leipzig (DE), 03/01
• Uwe-Karsten Günther gallery owner, »Laden für Nichts« Katharinenstraße, Leipzig (DE), 07/07
• Kenichi Hagihara artist, »Yuming« pool, Ibi (JP), 10/04
• Jitka Hanzlova photographer, Kutschenweg, Essen (DE), 04/01
• Yvonne Hardt choreographer and dancer, Baltic Seaside Resort Ahrenshoop (DE), 08/07
• Takafumi Hayashi with Masako Kawahara, photographers, »Matsumoto KiYoshi« drugstore, Yokohama (JP), 10/04
• Larissa Hjorth artist, Abbotsford, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Matthias Hoch photographer, airport, Leipzig / Halle (DE), 04/00
• Andreas Hofer artist, Gleimstraße, Berlin (DE), 09/04
• Christine and Irene Hohenbüchler artists, with their sister Heidemarie and daughter Juli (right to left), Eichgraben, Vienna Forest (AT), 05/07
• Takeshi Honda artist, with farmer, Futsukamachi, Tono (JP), 10/04
• Judith Huemer artist, Novaragasse, Vienna (AT), 06/07
• Terawaki Hiroko, Nishikawa Yuko, Kitazawa Rina, Ito Shoko design students, Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences (IAMAS), Ogaki (JP), 10/04
• Akiko Ikeda artist, Shin-Gifu Station, Gifu (JP), 10/04
• Shintaro Imai composer, »Kurhaus«, Baltic Sea Resort Ahrenshoop (DE), 08/06 with Susan Pietzsch, jewellery-artist and curator, »Kempinski Grand Hotel«, Heiligendamm (DE), 09/07
• Katharina Immekus painter, »Musikhaus Hans Tappert« shop, Leipzig (DE), 03/01
• Minako Ishikawa artist, Sotoyama, Iwate (JP), 10/04
• Kaori Kamisawa art-manager, »miyamae« childrens park, Kawasaki (JP), 10/04
• Leo Kandl photographer, Alte Donau, Vienna (AT), 05/07
• Osama Kanemura photographer, Tokyo College for Photography, Yokohama (JP), 10/04
• Izuru Kasahara artist, Hiyoshi, Yokohama (JP), 10/04
• Hironori Katagiri with Kate Thompson, sculptors, Ukishima, Iwate (JP), 10/04
• Naoko Katagishi artist, »Yakehashiri-Yoganryu« cold lava flow, Nishine (JP), 10/04
• Kentaro Kawabata ceramist, Onada, Tajimi (JP), 10/04
• Masako Kawahara with Takafumi Hayashi, photographers, »Matsumoto KiYoshi« drugstore, Yokohama (JP), 10/04
• Laura Kikauka artist, »The Funny Farm East« studio space, Berlin (DE), 02/01
• Leah King-Smith artist, »Royal Park Australian Native Garden«, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Thomas Knubben cultural scientist, »Das Blaue Haus« (artwork by Otmar Hörl), Ravensburg (DE), 08/04
• Martin Kobe painter, »KPMG« building, Leipzig (DE), 03/03
• Ryoji Koie ceramist, Umi, Kamiyahagi (JP), 10/04
• Yoshihiro Kondo highschool teacher and art collector, »Reversible Destiny-Yoro Park«, Yoro (JP), 10/04
• Oliver Kossack artist, »Norma« supermarket, Leipzig (DE), 11/00 and botanical garden, Leipzig (DE), 03/03
• Ole Krabbe-Poulsen with Rene Schmidt, artists, Captain Cook Square, Middlesbrough (GB), 05/05
• Mischa Kuball artist, with Reinhard Spieler, curator, »City Squash«, Düsseldorf (DE), 01/01
• Moritz Küng curator, »DeSingel« International Arts Center, Antwerp (BE), 07/03
• Paul Albert Leitner photographer, Südbahnhof, Vienna (AT), 06/07
• Ulrike Lienbacher artist, Gaisberg, Salzburg (AT), 02/07
• Arne Linde gallery owner, »Sports-Club«, Leipzig (DE), 07/07
• Wiebke Loeper photographer, Alexanderplatz, Berlin (DE), 06/00 and
  Baltic Sea Resort Ahrenshoop (DE), 07/07
• Maik and Dirk Löbbert artists, central station, Leipzig (DE), 06/00
• Bernd Lohaus artist, Dykstraat, Weert (BE), 07/03
• Rosa Loy painter, Zöbigker, Markkleeberg (DE), 11/00
• Jörg Lozek painter, opera house, Leipzig (DE), 02/03
• Toma Muteba Luntumbue artist and curator, Parc Leopold, Brussels (BE), 07/03
• Suska Mackert jewellery-artist, railway station, Plüschow (DE), 04/04
• Tuija Helena Markonsalo jewellery-artist, »Schloß Plüschow« artist residency, Plüschow (DE), 06/02
• Maix Mayer artist, »Pongoland« zoo, Leipzig (DE), 06/01
• Bea Meyer artist, Kleinzschocher, Leipzig (DE), 03/03
• Wataru Mikawa artist, »Coffeeshop Clambon«, Morioka (JP), 10/04
• Okamoto Mitsuhiro motorway »A  20«, Plüschow (DE), 06/02
• Michiko Miyake artist, with Seikou Ito, buddist monk and aikido teacher, Jyosyoji-temple, Yokohama (JP), 10/04
• Hisashi Momose artist, »Matsuo-Shrine«, Morioka (JP), 10/04
• Neda Navaee musican, with Norman Ohler, writer, Baltic Sea Resort Ahrenshoop (DE), 08/07
• Jürgen Noltensmeier painter and writer, Nietzsche Monument, Röcken (DE), 05/03
• Thorsten Nolting pastor and curator, Theodor-Heuss-Brücke, Düsseldorf (DE), 01/01
• Aimée Ntakiyica artist, Lot, Brussels (BE), 07/03
• Nurse fashion-artist, »Musée Royal de l’Armée et d’Histoire Militaire«, Brussels (BE), 08/03
• Norman Ohler writer with Neda Navaee, musican, Baltic Sea Resort Ahrenshoop (DE), 08/07
• Heribert C. Ottersbach painter, Butzweiler Hof, Cologne (DE), 10/07
• Yuka Oyama jewellery-artist, railway station, Plüschow (DE), 04/04
• Ria Pacquee artist, Spaarstraat, Antwerp (BE), 08/03
• Susan Pietzsch jewellery artist and curator, »Gespensterwald«, Heiligendamm (DE), 08/00 and filling station, Plüschow (DE), 06/02 with Shintaro Imai, composer, »Kempinski Grand Hotel«, Heiligendamm (DE), 09/07
• Peter Piller artist, with his son Ludwig, zoo, Halle a. d. Saale (DE), 02/07
• Sally Mc Rae painter, Hosier Lane, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Tilman Rammstedt writer, Oderbergerstraße, Berlin (DE), 02/04
• Neo Rauch painter, Leipzig (DE), 08/01
• Louise Rippert artist, St. Kilda Beach, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Alex Rizkalla artist, »Ocular Lab inc.« artist-run space, Melbourne (AU), 11/05
• Gert Robijns artist, Steenokkerzeel, Brussels (BE), 07/03
• Stella Rollig director, »Lentos« Museum of Modern Art, Linz (AT), 06/07
• Christoph Ruckhäberle artist, Holbeinstraße, Leipzig (DE), 02/03
• Michaela Sadlowski artist, Auewald, Leipzig (DE), 04/00
• Michael Schade photographer, Brandvorwerkstrasse, Leipzig (DE), 04/01
• Markus Schaden bookseller, cathedral place, Cologne (DE), 01/01
• Almut Tina Schmidt writer, »Kurhaus«, Baltic Sea Resort Ahrenshoop (DE), 08/07
• Julia Schmidt artist, »Deutsche Bank«, Leipzig (DE), 02/03
• Michael Schmidt photographer, with his dog »Freitag«, Bügermeister Schamp Straße, Schnackenburg (DE), 08/07
• Rene Schmidt with Ole Krabbe-Poulsen, artists, Captain Cook Square, Middlesbrough (GB), 05/05
• David Schnell painter, Kistritz, Weißenfels (DE), 05/01 and solar energy park, Waldpolenz (DE), 09/07
• Daniel Schörnig artist, Plagwitz, Leipzig (DE), 04/01
• Annette and Erasmus Schröter artists, north-east industrial estate, Leipzig (DE), 05/07
• Tilo Schulz artist, »Sportforum«, Leipzig (DE), 04/01
• Günther Selichar artist, »Saturn« electronic market, Vienna (AT), 06/07
• Kate Shaw artist, Abbotsford, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Ulrike Solbrig artist, »Zierfische« store, Berlin (DE), 05/01
• Heidi Specker artist, with Great Dane, »Käuzchensteig« studio house, Berlin (DE), 08/07
• Reinhard Spieler curator, with Mischa Kuball, artist, »City Squash«, Düsseldorf (DE), 01/01
• Barbara Steiner director with GfzK-gallery staff, Clara-Zetkin-Park, Leipzig (DE), 05/01
• Mike Strauch painter, Dorfstraße, Friedrichshagen (DE), 04/04
• Miyuki Sugimoto painter, Nakatsu River, Morioka (JP), 10/04
• Jiri Szeppan artist, Rue Anspach, Brussels (BE), 07/03
• Ines Tartler artist, cowshed, Plüschow (DE), 06/02
• Pascale Marthine Tayou artist, Lourdes, Ghent (BE), 08/03
• Kate Thompson with Hironori Katagiri, sculptors, Ukishima, Iwate (JP), 10/04
• Albrecht Tübke photographer, Clara-Zetkin-Park, Leipzig (DE), 02/01
• Miriam Vlaming painter, Lortzingstraße, Leipzig (DE), 06/01
• Le Vu artist, Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Darren Wardle painter, Dandenong Road, Melbourne (AU), 01/05
• Matthias Weischer painter, »Speisebar« university-canteen, Leipzig (DE), 02/03
• Michael Wesely photographer, »ZKV-Club«, Munich (DE), 03/01
• Manfred Willmann artist and publisher, Pongratzen, Großlieschen (AT), 09/07
• Jan Winkelmann curator, »Labyrinth« (artwork by Olaf Nicolai), Museum for Contemporary Art, Leipzig (DE), 08/00
• Kaihatsu Yoshiaki artist, Haus Schwarzenberg, Berlin (DE), 07/05
• Yoshihiko Yoshida ceramist, Kukuri, Kani (JP), 10/04