Adam Tellmeister

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Adam Tellmeister (born March 17, 1961 in Sumiswald , actually Adam Meister) is a Swiss artist.

Life

Grew up in Wyssachen , Tellmeister has lived and worked in Berlin since the end of 1989. In 1986 he refused military service in the Swiss Army . He emigrated and was the first Swiss to apply for asylum in Germany as part of an art campaign . After the application of the “refugee from the model country of democracy”, as Der Spiegel wrote, was rejected, Tellmeister lived illegally until 2008. This year, with the support of the Foreign Office, he received a Swiss passport, which is made out in his artist pseudonym, Adam Tellmeister.

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Tellmeister is self-taught . In his work, the painter and performance artist deals critically with questions of identity. Thematically, his works are mainly determined by his ambivalent relationship to Switzerland.

Schwarze Helvetia, Adam Tellmeister, 2004 (oil on canvas)

His large-format, fresco- inspired holographic paintings, which are painted with a special light-reflecting paint, are central . Using an LED structure in the picture frame and invisible to the viewer, Tellmeister creates three-dimensional picture spaces with a previously unknown depth of field. This spatiality is lost in the replication through photographs.

Holographic painting, Adam Tellmeister, 1999 (LED with reflective colors)

In dealing with Switzerland, he worked on the Swiss national myth Wilhelm Tell , to which the artist also goes back pseudonymously . Tellmeister continues the work with the topic of identity more fundamentally in his productions: his asylum applications in Germany, the Netherlands and finally in the German Democratic Republic after the fall of the Berlin Wall investigate who is entitled to citizenship and membership.

He now systematically exhibits his works under different names. He creates fictional, international artistic personalities who on the one hand embody national stereotypes and at the same time break through. He uses actors who take on the role of the artist without this becoming publicly known. These transcultural exhibitions are also located in the postcolonial theoretical context and aim to overcome geographical and cultural borders. It also plays with the importance that the artist develops for the work itself. The public does not know which exhibitions Tellmeister can be assigned to.

Sofakokku, Adam Tellmeister, 2003 (oil on handmade paper)

Exhibitions and art events (selection)

  • 1986–1989: Asylum search performance: 1986: Asylum application in Essen town hall. 1988: Asylum application in the Netherlands. 1989: Asylum application in the GDR
  • 1990: Berliner Volksbühne. Accompanying exhibition to Frank Castorf's production "The Robbers"
  • 1990: Currency campaign "Capitalism is profitable"
  • 1991: Art at your own risk (Galerie Weißer Elefant Berlin)
  • 1993: Bone Money (pseudonym GP Adam) (Galerie O.2 Berlin)
  • 1992: Speculate with art (Galerie Basic Berlin)
  • 1995: Local water currency (former GDR flea cinema Berlin)
  • 2009: Silent opening and political finissage (Galerie Wernicke and Hasshoff Berlin)
  • 2012: With criminal energy (Spinnerei Halle 14 Leipzig)

Media reports (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Dorn: Still in exile despite the Swiss passport. In: Berliner Zeitung . July 31, 2009
  2. ^ Anne Haeming: Art star Tellmeister. Tailor-made provocations. In: Spiegel Online . August 18, 2008
personal data
SURNAME Tellmeister, Adam
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meister, Adam (maiden name); Adam, GP
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Sumiswald