Horst Ademeit (artist)

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Horst Ademeit (born September 9, 1937 in Cologne , † July 1, 2010 in Düsseldorf ) was a German artist.

For forty years he documented his immediate surroundings, which he saw influenced by cold rays, with Polaroid cameras, analog and digital photography. In 2008 his extensive work, consisting of several thousand photographs, measuring devices and handwritten notes, was discovered and exhibited for the first time.

Life

After an apprenticeship as a painter and house painter, Horst Ademeit initially worked as a precision mechanic in the early 1960s. In 1964 he began studying textile design at the Werkkunstschule in Cologne, which he successfully completed in 1970. In the same year he enrolled briefly at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and was assigned to Joseph Beuys' class . His first documentary photos were taken in the mid-1970s.

From the 1970s until his death, Ademeit devoted himself to the detailed photographic documentation of cold rays in Düsseldorf-Flingern. He died in 2010 at the age of 72.

plant

During the last forty years of his life, the artist Horst Ademeit documented and recorded the harmful effects of cold rays on himself and his environment. With the help of polaroid photography, analogue and digital photographs, he secured the material of his daily observations. On the white frame of the Polaroids or on separate sheets of text, Ademeit added a description of smells, noises and a subjective assessment of the visible scenery to the picture in tiny handwriting. Often, the exact time of recording and the duration of the recorded situation were meticulously noted. On the text level, personal comments about what was directly observed are mixed with newspaper or radio reports on current political events.

In order to be able to record the constant exposure to the cold rays more precisely, Ademeit also used an arsenal of measuring instruments (Geiger counter, thermometer, lux meter, etc.) and developed his own methods, such as measuring the extent of a gap in the top of his wooden table to determine Temperature fluctuation.

Detailed notes of his daily observations can also be found in numerous Leporellos and on separate text pages. In a barely legible miniature font, they record the threatening influences to which he felt himself exposed.

In addition to the photographic and written evidence, Ademeit turned hundreds of pellets from a wide variety of woods, which he placed on his own body to ward off the cold rays. Ademeit decided on certain materials and beads, depending on the calculated measured value.

Thematically, the Polaroids can be assigned to two different groups of works:
The observation pictures document the impact of the threatening power in his immediate living environment. They show construction site work, abandoned bicycles, accumulations of rubbish, oil stains and the formation of mold on the bread. And they record the behavior of the spiders and fruit flies in his apartment, the turtles and swallows in the garden. For example, it was recorded whether the spiders are noticeably active when they quickly move from one corner of the room to the other and whether the neighbour's turtles can take over the new home in the garden.

The respective date of such observations was also noted on the Polaroids, often over a period of months. On the basis of systematic repetitions in observation, description and selection of motifs, Ademeit develops an order system that records even the smallest changes in its environment. Recurring motifs form important reference values ​​in the constant attempt to order a world that is hostile to him.

On the Day images arranged Ademeit addition to the current headlines of Bild newspaper instruments, letters and food. Each of the several thousand pictures of the day is numbered, dated and provided with a micro-script. Here, too, Ademeit added annotations on everyday occurrences to the picture or took up information and headlines that were significant for him from the newspaper. This creates connections between changes in the inside and outside world, in private and public life. Since 1999 Horst Ademeit has also worked with digital cameras and noted his observations on separate text sheets. Ademeit's overflowing inventory is by no means intended to prove the existence of cold rays, rather it testifies to the necessity of recording itself. Observing and recording from an inner drive, Ademeit follows an inevitable routine that determines his entire daily routine.

Ademeit leaves behind a strictly conceptual work of art of immense scope. His observations and documentation consistently follow the inherent logic of his system. His work was discovered in 2008 and exhibited for the first time. In 2010 Horst Ademeit received his first institutional exhibition in the art space White Columns , New York, USA. The solo exhibition “Horst Admeit. Secret universe ”in the Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin.

Exhibitions (selection)

  • May 9 - August 25, 2013: HEIMs sucht - Unsafe Spaces in Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Bonn
  • September 7th - December 9th, 2012: 30th São Paulo Biennale 2012
  • May 13 - September 25, 2011: Horst Ademeit. secret universe, Hamburger Bahnhof
  • September 3 - October 21, 2010: Horst Ademeit, Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne
  • March 5 - April 17, 2010: Horst Ademeit, White Columns Art Space, New York
  • February 1 - March 7, 2009: Horst Ademeit, Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne

literature

Movies

  • ADEMEIT , England 2010, 26 min, directed by Michael Bauer and Marcus Werner Hed, White Columns, New York, USA.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Horst Adameit. Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne (accessed February 9, 2016).
  2. ↑ a b Horst Ademeit. secret universe. Hamburger Bahnhof , Berlin (accessed February 9, 2016).
  3. ↑ John Beeson: Horst Admeit. Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum of the Present . In: Artforum 09/2011, p. 359.
  4. ↑ Mirja Rosenau: Ademeits world. In: art - Das Kunstmagazin , October 2010, pp. 76–82, p. 78.
  5. ^ Sebastian Frenzel: Outsider Art in Berlin. In: monopol , November 9, 2011 (accessed February 9, 2016).
  6. ↑ Veit Loers: "Spiders very tense". Horst Ademeit under the spell of the rays. In: Susanne Zander and Nicole Delmes (eds.): Horst Ademeit. Living in the radiant cold. Cologne 2010, pp. 6–12, p. 8.
  7. ↑ Astrid Mania: The Polaroid as a miracle drug . artnet.de, January 21, 2009 ( Memento from February 17, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ).
  8. ↑ HEIMs sucht - Unsafe Spaces in Contemporary Art. Kunstmuseum Bonn (accessed February 9, 2016).
  9. ↑ 30th São Paulo Biennale 2012. See catalog pp. 177–78 at Issuu.com (Portuguese, accessed on February 9, 2016).
  10. ↑ a b Overview of the exhibitions at Galerie Susanne Zander, Cologne (accessed on February 9, 2016).
  11. ↑ Horst Ademeit. White Columns Art Space, New York (accessed February 9, 2016).
personal data
SURNAME Ademeit, Horst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German artist
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH July 1, 2010
Place of death Dusseldorf