Schu­ma­cher Weise deKoe

The three photo artists gathe­red in this exhi­bi­tion – Ste­fan Schu­ma­cher, Sebas­tian Weise and Käthe deKoe – are con­nec­ted by pho­to­gra­phy in urban and land­scape space. The more than 40 works com­bine some motifs that have alre­ady been pre­sen­ted in pre­vious exhi­bi­ti­ons and nume­rous new works from 2019 to 2021 that are being pre­sen­ted here for the first time.
Based on the style of the Düs­sel­dorf Becher school, the Munich pho­to­gra­pher and desi­gner Ste­fan Schu­ma­cher (b. 1960) initi­ally approa­ches the sub­jects of his inte­rest in a descrip­tive man­ner. An influ­ence of the “puri­fied” motif is evi­dent by the lack of people, vehi­cles, or signs. In addi­tion, the light is always dim and wit­hout any shadows. In this way, a win­dow into rea­lity is trans­fer­red into a ste­rile arti­fi­cia­lity that cle­arly stres­ses its struc­tu­ral rela­ti­onships and then enab­les the actual con­sti­tu­tion of the sub­ject in the first place: sur­faces, ste­reo­me­tric forms, and par­ti­cu­lar struc­tures join toge­ther into the abstract­ness of the over­all com­po­si­tion. There is alter­na­tion bet­ween airy spaces, sta­cked, staccato-like tower­ing pedi­ments, ornately-crossed cubo­ids or even just expres­si­vely com­mu­ni­ca­ting road mar­kings alter­na­ting with each other. Schumacher’s work the­re­fore pro­ves its­elf to be dialec­tical, con­cep­tual art that has deve­l­o­ped an inde­pen­dent visual aes­the­tic. Howe­ver, the artist’s broa­de­ned view also allows him to engage with acci­den­tally dis­co­vered forms and struc­tures in urban space, which leave the actual object behind and exist as lar­gely auto­no­mous forms, some­ti­mes beyond the limits of deci­phe­ra­bi­lity.
The Halle (Saale)-based pho­to­gra­pher Sebas­tian Weise (b. 1975) became known for his series „Aes­the­tics of Giving Up“, docu­men­ting the tran­si­ence of inte­ri­ors of aban­do­ned hou­ses in his Thu­rin­gian home­land, along with a num­ber of bizarre accom­pany­ing motifs. The theme of found things is decisive for his work: objects dis­co­vered by chance, but also out­door situa­ti­ons are rein­ter­pre­ted pre­ci­sely because of the tra­ces of decay mani­fes­ting in them. The imple­men­ta­tion as a pic­to­rial motif does not hap­pen through a sta­ged inter­ven­tion, but solely through a dis­tan­ced, albeit selec­tive depic­tion, which always inclu­des the pos­si­bi­lity of an iro­nic break. Since 2016, Weise’s work has focu­sed on the series „Two Souls Live…“, in which he deals with the tra­ces of life of the Ger­mans in the Sude­ten­land — the home­land of his ance­s­tors — and com­bi­nes them with per­so­nal tra­vel pic­tures to create sur­real pic­ture col­la­ges. „The col­lage pro­cess was applied in a highly intui­tive man­ner. ‘Work in pro­gress’ is a legi­ti­mate descrip­tion. I’ll be here and there again and again, I’ll always see new pic­tures.“ Sebas­tian Weise recei­ved the Sude­ten Ger­man Cul­ture Prize for Fine Arts and Archi­tec­ture in 2017.
Munich-based artist Käthe deKoe (b. 1984) has become a fixed term to the public, spe­ci­fi­cally through her image-based reporting of Munich’s pop and rock con­certs in the music maga­zine LAX­mag. To her, land­scape pho­to­gra­phy means pri­ma­rily focu­sing on an inspec­tion and inter­pre­ta­tion of the urban and rural areas in and around Munich. Through the use of motion blur, detailed infor­ma­tion that allows for an exact geo­gra­phi­cal posi­tio­ning of the selec­ted sub­ject has been omit­ted. On the other hand, the viewer fabri­ca­tes arche­typal views, in com­pa­ri­son with the real cir­cum­stan­ces and reconstructs – as it were – men­tal images, fed by know­ledge and expe­ri­ence. These reconstruc­tions are ulti­mately fan­tasy visi­ons, which con­se­quently do not require a “liken­ess” or an empi­ri­cal veri­fi­ca­tion. Whe­ther the English Gar­den, an S-Bahn mez­za­nine, or the foot­hills of the Alps deli­ver the con­crete motive remains irre­le­vant. Rather, the visual and struc­tu­ral pro­per­ties shove them­sel­ves to the fore­ground. The liken­ess sug­gests the image and beco­mes inde­pen­dent as an auto­no­mous work of art, which its­elf – in turn – can be char­ged with the viewer’s memo­ries and emo­ti­ons, with the aim of a proac­tive con­fron­ta­tion bet­ween rea­lity and pho­to­gra­phic reality.

2G applies in the rooms of the gal­lery, as do the usual mask and dis­tance rules. We ask for abso­lute compliance!