Sebastian Stumpf

At the center of Sebastian Stumpf’s video installations and photographs, there is always his own body, which he stages in artistic and subversive actions that refer to the space of the city. In his first solo exhibition at the recently opened Galerie Thomas Fischer, which is located in a former apartment in an old building, Stumpf presents four works that respond to the four rooms of the space. These include seven photographs from the series “Highwalk,” 2010, for which the artist swung––much like a stuntman or traceur––above the balustrades of the Highwalk at the Barbican Estate housing complex in London. In each image, one can see only the moment of the jump that Stumpf has caught with his automatic release, which he holds in his hand.

In the next room, viewers encounter the projected video Bäume (Trees), 2008, which offers a succession of slapstick sequences showing the artist climbing young street trees, testing the trees’ resistance against the weight of his body. In the adjacent space, twelve photographs from the series “Sukima (standing on doors and walls on gaps),” 2009, are hung closely together. Here, he has placed himself in the characteristic small niches between houses in Tokyo and photographed himself, back turned to the observer, with an automatic release. Finally, the video projection Performance #25, 2011, is installed in a narrow corridor. As one quickly realizes, it was shot exactly there, which is typical of the artist’s numbered videos from this series. The work shows him climbing up and then briefly moving under the ceiling before disappearing from the image. This vanishing also marks the end of the film.

Through the deployment of his own body, Stumpf emphasizes the constructedness of representation in his works. Action and image are inextricably bound to each other. The unconventional missions of the artist dislocate us into amazement, for they leave it to the viewer to imagine where and how these actions end.

Translated from German by Diana Reese.