print September 1991

Ingo Günther

Ingo Günther’s work combines artistic fiction and journalistic fact. One of his most spectacular pieces is Shaheed, 1991, which evaluates satellite photo data. It includes facts through which he reconnoitered an artificial Iraqi lake on the Iraq-Iran war front. His report went around the world, not as art, but as news of military strategy. In his capacity as a journalist, Günther visited Iraq two years ago in order to meet Ismail Fatah, the builder of a gigantic 130-foot-high monument. According to Fatah, his opus was dedicated to the eternal memory of all martyrs in the world. On an official

print April 1991

Johan Muyle

This exhibition of Johan Muyle’s rotating, blinking, and tinkling works would have fascinated and entertained children. Between the individual works stuffed animals tumbled about, giving the entire scene a macabre atmosphere. A monkey surrounded by ivy extended his arm to beg; two Pomeranians played with each other in a baby carriage. Each work seemed to transport the viewer back to a time of individual mythologies and surrealistic games. A strange combination of devotional objects, sawed-up furniture, and tin cans created this time warp, which, with its tendency toward private mysticism, harkened

print February 1991

Katharina Sieverding

In Germany, Katharina Sieverding is considered a pioneer of an art that utilizes photography without overemphasizing its mimetic capabilities. Instead, she concentrates on the process, and her works refer more to the registration of light on the film than to the documented subject matter. It may be a coincidence, albeit not an extraordinary one, that five of the exhibited pieces depict the artist herself; the self-portrait does, however, constitute one of the most frequent motifs in her oeuvre. Transformer, 1973, the oldest piece on display, consists of several superimposed versions of her face.

print November 1990

Ottmar Hörl

Traditions modulate but the adaptations and attendant transformations that characterize cultural evolution take time. The earliest industrial buildings employed the grand style of patrician architecture until new forms were invented and the old garb was discarded. A purely industrial architecture became possible only in the 20th century; previously, the factories were characterized by architectural elements left over from earlier functions.

At first glance, Ottmar Hörl’s sculptures look like attempts at transforming industrial architecture back into public architecture. This is accurate, however,

print Summer 1990

Franz Erhard Walther

Breaking down the barrier between art and its viewer was one of the main artistic tendencies of the ’60s. This preoccupation distilled in the oft-quoted formula, “art is life,” resulted in happenings, performances, and artistic actions that deliberately required audience participation. Within this overall trend, Franz Erhard Walther prefers a concept of “work” that implies process and challenges the viewer to act, to the concept of art. Walther’s statement, “I am sculpture,” presumes the existence of a viewer who, either conceptually or by active physical involvement, takes part in the artist’s

Wolf Jahn