Jörg SasseDurchsicht
Exhibition
Introduction
Markus Mittringer, author, Vienna
Markus Mittringer, author, Vienna
Grünangergasse 1
1010 Vienna
8 Feb – 24 Mar 2012
Art is unpredictable. It emerges or disappears in a process that is nonlinear and influenced by continuous feedback from chaotic or random events. No positing, no method, no conception is going to change that. Access to art holds promises objects of projection.”
read inGerman
For the exhibition “Durchsicht” [Looking Through], Jörg Sasse has chosen a selection of works including some which are being shown here for the first time. His tableaus and still lifes, which are grouped together to form a block, are based on processed photographs. The foreground and background overlay and permeate each other, transforming the meaning of “looking through” from acquiring an overview or insight to the act of perception itself – an act which is questioned at the same time. Jörg Sasse will also be presenting his work “Speicher III” [Storage Space III], a wall piece consisting of 64 pictures. This project was shown in an alternative version at the Musée d’Art moderne in Paris in 2008 and in the exhibition Ruhrblicke [Views of the Ruhr] in Essen in 2010. “Jörg Sasse’s ‘Speicher’ always invite visitors to choose their own combination of pictures and randomly fill a predefined structure for hanging them with a selection of approximately five pictures (‘files’). While the ‘Speicher I’ (Paris) and ‘Speicher II’ (Essen) ‘files’ were organized according to different themes (categories), the new ‘Speicher III’ at Galerie nächst St. Stephan is not based on a file organizing system. It is completely without ‘folders.’ All three ‘Speicher’ share a completely non-hierarchical structure. There are no sub-folders, no predefined pathways. While the visitors (i.e. users) in Paris and Essen could still draw from different categories (such as ‘abstract', ‘headgear’, or ‘winter’) to select elements for their combinations, the rule for ‘Speicher III’ is simply 5 out of 64. This is the basis for the task of randomly filling the matrix consisting of a series of five pictures. Jörg Sasse lets the beholder take part in hanging pictures in an exhibition, thus creating a clearly defined experimental space where anyone can test different ideas that enter into the act of ‘hanging’ an exhibit. The ‘Speicher’ therefore serves as a simulator and training device. Sasse provides the exhibition materials on reserve and the rules; it is up to lay people to exhibit their own version, which is determined by ‘looking through’ the storage block. After the selection comes an evaluation. Jörg Sasse added a book to the ‘Speicher’, in which all possible combinations of images are rated. ‘=5’ is for the best possible combination of pictures and ‘=1’ for the worst. The book offers neither canon nor value system on which the evaluation is based. The pictorial motifs – fabrics, patterns, architectural details – are not defined in detail; their origin is irrelevant. Whether the more correct or more incorrect way of hanging describes a certain rhythm, whether it triggers a specific chain of associations, corresponds to a purely formal order, or hints at something narrative after all, is also left open. But we can also turn our focus on the ‘Speicher’ itself and try to establish a ‘pattern’ on the object by creating empty places when picking out pictures, and by finding out whether or not the resulting combination of pictures is ‘very good,’ ‘satisfactory,’ or – according to the book – merely ‘insufficient.’”
Learn more about
Photo
- Markus Wörgötter
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