Sta­ging of the Female Body

The New Leip­zig School — since the 1990s, this assi­gna­tion has been applied exclu­si­vely to figu­ra­tive pain­ting, alt­hough the pho­to­gra­phic arts, and here espe­cially the work of Leip­zig pho­to­gra­pher Loreen Hinz (born in 1983), should be inclu­ded. Hinz unites figu­ra­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion with expe­ri­men­tal mani­pu­la­tion and thus gene­ra­tes inter­pre­ta­ti­ons of her sub­jects which seem sur­real. The series “Ico­no­clast” (2016), for example, con­sists of double-sided images scan­ned on foil whose motifs – por­traits of female models – are enhan­ced with expres­sive retou­ch­ing, so that the effect of the ori­gi­nal and the new image are per­cei­ved as con­flic­ting aes­the­tic con­cepts. On view for the first time at the Gal­lery for Con­tem­porary Pho­to­gra­phy, the piece “Madame Seed­ler” (2016), which was born out of inspi­ra­tion found in the stu­dio of Leipzig-based artist Anija Seed­ler, con­nects aspects of modern fashion pho­to­gra­phy through its artistic adapta­ti­ons of early Ger­man Mas­ters such as Cra­nach und Hans Bal­dung Grien. The sym­bio­sis of modern pain­ting of Leip­zig stu­dents and the human indi­vi­dual forms a high­point in the oeu­vre of the artist who also lives in Leip­zig artist.
Kor­bi­nian Vogt (born 1995) from Munich is one of the most remar­ka­ble prot­ago­nists in young Ger­man pho­to­gra­phy. Com­ple­tely unim­pres­sed by the fact that – as it was regar­ded as the epi­tome of folksy, fascistoid-inspired kitsch and also reflec­ted tra­di­tio­nal roles – the female nude has played vir­tually no role in pho­to­gra­phy since the 1960s, Vogt devo­tes him­self to pre­ci­sely this topic, but wit­hout any socio­cul­tu­ral imp­li­ca­ti­ons: for him, it is only the ele­ments of nature that feel right. The com­plete absorp­tion of the naked female body in nature is just as self-evident to Vogt as are the well-thought-out pic­to­rial com­po­si­ti­ons which cap­ture the aes­the­tics of the spe­cial moment. So he hikes with his models to care­fully cho­sen loca­ti­ons and then shoots them nude in front of brea­thta­king moun­tain ran­ges or in inhos­pi­ta­ble ice land­scapes. The pres­sing ine­vi­ta­bi­lity of these motifs makes it clear that, ulti­mately, it is viru­lent inner images that the artist visua­li­zes. The aes­the­ti­cally exag­ge­ra­ted truth of their rep­re­sen­ta­tion lends his pho­to­gra­phic works a magic that goes beyond authen­ti­city and one that the viewer can­not escape, they “brace them­sel­ves against being lost and thus open up a visual level rep­lete with little mira­cles. His mira­cles – bet­ween soli­lo­quy and sto­ry­tel­ling.” His photo book “Nar­ra­ted Mono­lo­gue” (2016) was very well received.