Andrzej Steinbach / Ludwig Schönherr

The Kunstverein in Hamburg is delighted to present the exhibitions Models and Protocols by Andrzej Steinbach and Bilderinflation by Ludwig Schönherr. We cordially invite you to our Opening on Friday, March 4, at 7pm.

Andrzej Steinbach: Models and Protocols
Andrzej Steinbach intentionally makes conscious use of staging in order to devote himself to social issues, allowing him to use photography’s intrinsic promise of reality for questions related to media and politics. In image series and multimedia conceptual works, the artist questions norms and perceptions, spaces and specific attribu­tions. Besides existing photographic series and a sound- and video-installation the new photographic series Auto Erotik, produced for the Kunstverein in Hamburg will be shown. Auto Erotik takes macrophotography and the photography of objects as its starting points. Metaphorically, the idea is to come closer to and penetrate things. Steinbach took objects from his workshop like tools and screws and photographs them in or after use, suggesting destruction, touching, tension, and friction, and lending the term Auto Erotik a sensual aspect. The exhibition Models and Protocols reflects on the different photographic genres and their (ideological) implications as ways to make a statement about the consti­tution and potential change of society as well as the medium itself. By using the obstinacy of photographic means, Steinbach makes hidden structures visible, brings them into focus and thus sharpens visual perception.

The exhibition is curated by Bettina Steinbrügge. A first comprehensive monograph will be published with Spector Books, Leipzig in summer 2022.

Artist talk
March 5, 2022, 2pm
Andrzej Steinbach in conversation with Bettina Steinbrügge

Ludwig Schönherr: Bilderinflation
How can we slow down the constant stream of everyday images that bombard, seduce, distract and amaze us so that we may better analyze and understand their logic? The photography series Bilderinflation (Image Inflation, 1978) by Ludwig Schönherr (1935-2016) deals with the flicker of images in more and more homes following the spread of television in the post-war era. In 1978, moving between Hamburg and New York City, the artist took a roll of photographs of select television images every day. The photos were made following a carefully conceived score so that in alternation with white frames they formed geometric patterns in the grid of a contact sheet. While Schönherr never realized this project in the form of an exhibition and only showed small sections of the work in his lifetime, he left copious notes, diagrams and conceptual papers that document the production process and signal his intent. The organizers of this exhibition have drawn on a deep engagement with these primary materials while working creatively to interpret Schönherr’s project for a new installation format. The artist’s first institutional solo exhibition will feature an installation of the entire year-long photography series in a specially conceived grid structure of 896 aluminium bars, 365 sheets of plexiglass and 3252 screws. In addition to Bilderinflation’s 365 photographs, which have been newly printed to Schönherr’s specifications, the exhibition will also present archival materials, including scores, visual scripts, and concept papers that document the work’s research and development phase, as well as related work by the artist on the subject of television. These materials are placed in dialogue with the significance of colour and coloured light in Schönherr’s works. The exhibition further combines quotes from the artist with commentary on his work by Marc Siegel.  

The exhibition is organized by Jonathan Berger, Susanne Sachsse and Marc Siegel, in collaboration with Zoom – Ludwig Schönherr Labor (Berlin). A book on Schönherr’s work is forthcoming with August Verlag, Berlin.

Online talk with Ana Teixeira Pinto and Marc Siegel (date tba)