Christoph Brech

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Christoph Brech (* 1964 in Schweinfurt ) is a German artist .

life and work

After graduating from high school and training as a gardener , Brech studied from 1989 to 1995 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Franz Bernhard Weißhaar . In 1995 he became a master student . From 1997 to 2000 he was an assistant in Munich and from 2003 to 2004 guest lecturer at the Université du Québec Montréal (UQAM), Montréal and 2009 guest lecturer at the National Dong Hwa University Hualien and at the National Taiwan University of Arts Taipei .

Brech's work focuses on video works, room installations and works in public space. His video works are shown in Europe, North and South America, and Asia. The artist focuses on the topics of time, transience, presence and absence and memory as well as physical, mental and spiritual transitions.

Another big topic is music. In the video “Opus 110a” from 2001, music is visualized. The film about the quartet Quatuor Ebène von Brech is an extraordinary portrait and examines the question “Where does music come from?”. Characteristic for Brech is a sudden discovery as the starting point for artistic work. Unlike Wassily Kandinsky , who sought correspondences between tones and sounds with his “Yellow Sound”, Brech does not proceed systematically. The installation “Portrait of an Orchestra” was created in collaboration with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The sounds of the individual musicians are converted into light. Like a musical starry sky, this work could be seen in the Munich City Museum in early 2009 . The accidentally observed takes shape in images that slowly flow towards the viewer. On trips like 2003 to Canada as "Artist in Residence" both photo series in diary form and films were created.

During his stay in Rome in 2006 as a fellow at Villa Massimo, he created the “Diario Fotografico”, a photo diary. It brings everyday situations into new contexts in terms of form and content. The presence of different epochs becomes clear, whereby the photos as well as the films manage without provocations. The material for the videos “La Civetta” (2006), “Trapasso” (2008), “Transito” (2007) and “Punto” (2006) also dates from this period. “La Civetta” shows the classic view of St. Peter's Basilica through the keyhole of the entrance to the Maltese Gardens on the Aventine . This work is compared to film noir . “Trapasso” and “Transito” address ephemeral light, time and change through time. “Punto” works like a mirage.

Christoph Brech represented Germany in the international video exhibition Mutations II, Moving Stills , which was shown in museums in Berlin, Bratislava, Luxembourg, Moscow, Paris, Rome and Vienna (2008/2009). He is considered one of the most important German video artists (Handelsblatt, January 28, 2009). In 2011, Christoph Brech and Nicola Borgmann won the international competition for art in the extension of the German Bundestag in Berlin (Marie-Elisabeth-Lüders-Haus). The closed-circuit video installation “Blick-Wechsel” convinced the jury because it poetically addresses the Spree as the inner-German border. Brech lives and works in Munich .

Working in public space

  • 2014 Change of view, video installation, new building of the German Bundestag, Berlin
  • 2013 Video portrait of the baritone Wolfgang Koch , portrait gallery of the Bavarian State Opera, Munich
  • 2013 glass panels, Marktoberdorf high school
  • 2006 Benches, Nikolaus Kiener project, Eckstätt
  • 2004 Signs, Conductive Promotion Center New Building, Munich
  • 2001 Light balance, New Justice Building, Augsburg
  • 2001 Law, facade design, New Justice Building, Augsburg
  • 1998 Up Side Down, foyer design by Rheinhold & Mahla GmbH, Munich
  • 1997 Change of time, space design for Cavalier Elbracht, Klenzebau, Ingolstadt
  • 1995 View, design of the foyer and a meeting room of the Bavarian State Parliament, Munich
  • 1994 Wigwam, atrium design for children's clinic, Gaißach
  • 1992 Alpenspiegel, foyer design of the Bavarian riot police, Munich

Works in public collections

Exhibitions

Prizes and awards

Web links

literature

  • 4. Artist lexicon, KUE number: 30061009
  • Michael Buhrs, Andrea Firmenich (Ed.): Passages: Video, Photography, Installation. On the occasion of the exhibition "Christoph Brech. Passages. Video, Photography, Installation" in the Altana Cultural Foundation in the Sinclair House, Bad Homburg, February 18-19. April 2009 and in the Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, February 11 - May 24, 2010. , Bad Homburg vor der Höhe, Altana Kulturstiftung 2009, ISBN 978-3-934860-18-6 .
  • Arnold Nesselrath (ed.): Rome: Photo diary / Christoph Brech. , Wienand, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-87909-956-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The image detail is a close-up of the conductor Christoph Poppen , whose folds of tailcoat reproduce the music of Dmitri Shostakovich . "The moving material becomes an abstract metaphor for a diffuse ... network of relationships that Brech summarizes in a cinematic order." In Johannes Janssen: Passagen , page 14
  2. ↑ "Brech still manages a unique" film noir "" in Johannes Janssen: Passagen , page 18
  3. ↑ Thomas Wagner: Roman Perspectives
  4. ↑ Villa Stuck website
  5. ^ The last Nazarener in FAZ from July 25, 2016, page 11
personal data
SURNAME Break, Christoph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German video artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1964
PLACE OF BIRTH Schweinfurt