Hans Martin Sewcz
Hans Martin Sewcz (* 1955 in Halle (Saale) ) is a German photographer and concept artist.
Life
Hans Martin Sewcz began to use photography specifically as a means of expression at the age of 18.
From 1975 he studied at the University of Graphic Art and Book Art in Leipzig and graduated in 1981 as a "diploma photographer".
Living as a freelance photographer in East Berlin, he applied to move to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1984, which was approved in spring 1988. Sewcz moved to West Berlin and in 1991 received a photography grant from the Senator for Cultural Affairs.
Hans Martin Sewcz exhibits in German and international galleries and museums. He lives in the center of Berlin.
plant
His artistic work ranges from documentary to subjective photography. In addition, from the 1990s he made a name for himself as an installation and video artist. Already in the GDR he dealt with the topic of "everyday culture".
photography
In the 1970s, even before he was a student, he began to document life on the streets of East Berlin and Leipzig with a camera, recording the psychologically essential aspect of the chosen moment. “He was fascinated by the “ unwanted authenticity ” , the houses that remained, the great fallow areas in between, the huge firewalls and the dark bricks ... His pictures are communicative and yet not intrusive. They evoke the poetry of chance ... He himself says that his work at the time fluctuated "between the poles of aversion and identification" . "
This can also be felt in his work on product culture in the GDR from the 1980s. Inspired by Andy Warhol , he photographed typical shop window displays in color, "so that the pale colors of the goods and their packaging ... are particularly emphasized". Even then, the shop windows looked like they were from a bygone world and are far removed from today's perfectionism.
During and after the fall of the Wall, Sewcz primarily reflected the changes in the Berlin cityscape. Today he is interested in modern architecture "and portrays buildings as if they were personalities".
Portraits
His portraits primarily show children, young adults and artists. In 1976 he created “the anonymous 3/4 figure portraits of his fellow students: students at the College of Graphics and Book Art as well as education, music and acting students, including Ulrich Mühe. Objectively, taken in front of a white wall, the pictures are formally in the tradition of the strict black-and-white portraits by August Sander ... The faces are serious, but by no means blank; the clothing is sometimes unconventional. Especially the young creative people, to whom the photographer himself belongs, act rebellious. ”During the 1980s, and as early as 1981 in Moscow, Sewcz framed the image more closely, he captured the gaze more directly. Today he mainly portrays personalities from cultural life.
Sequences
Between 1987 and 1992, Sewcz developed a special photographic format between photography and film. The particular attraction of this medium is that images of several successive points in time are located on a single image surface. To do this, he enlarged entire parts of the contact strips “with several sequential images, so that the perforation remains visible and an almost cinematographic effect is created, which in turn is broken by the fragmentation”. The best-known work from this series is “Gorbachev in East Berlin 1987”, which was created during the visit of the young Soviet CPSU leader to the Comecon summit.
Installations "ready found"
Sewcz prefers to use everyday objects from the GDR for his installations and sculptural works, which he calls “ready founds”, consciously referring to Marcel Duchamp . They are brought into a new context and thus receive, in addition to their purely historical meanings, an intentional aesthetic transformation into the present.
Sewcz attaches great importance to the utmost precision when it comes to arrangement and staging. Even the surrounding area is included in the composition.
“The work of the photo artist trained in Leipzig thematize and question the stringencies and unambiguity of formal work processes. The decision as to the extent to which the prepared motif actually becomes a motif, or remains an installation and stands in front of your eyes as a three-dimensional constellation of objects, is itself a process. With the works of Hans Martin Sewcz, the historically important topic of art, the relationship between figure and ground, has been re-established. "
architectural art
Sewcz won several “Art in Architecture” competitions, for example in 1997 for the Sparkasse Uecker-Randow (Pasewalk, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania). There he put an oversized Braille in the lobby of the Sparkasse. It consists of ruby red glass set in nickel silver. The text reads: "Felix, qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas" ("Happy who can see the reasons of things"). The subline reads: "In honor of Oscar Picht - Pasewalk 1998". With this reference to the inventor of the blind typewriter, who was born in Pasewalk, Sewcz deliberately established a local reference.
Video art
In his videos Sewcz deals with moving portraits. To do this, he lets the actors act according to his specifications. The basis of “Fish Night Song”, for example, is the graphic poem of the same name by Christian Morgenstern , which does not consist of words, but exclusively of semicircles and linear signs. The recordings were made in 1995 during a vernissage at the Starke Foundation when the concept artist Hans Martin Sewcz asked the visitors to interpret the poem in front of the camera.
From 1997 to 2003 Sewcz recorded his life in Berlin like a diary. He filmed street scenes, techno raves and other large parades, (artist) portraits and autobiographies.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions (selection)
- 2011 "Berlin-Mitte May 1979 | Early photographs by Hans Martin Sewcz ”. Collection Regard, Berlin
- 2003/2004 "Hans Martin Sewcz Photography". State Museum, Schwerin
- 1997 "Hans Martin Sewcz". State Museum, Schwerin
- 1995 "Hans Martin Sewcz READY FOUND". Strong Foundation, Berlin
- 1993 "Yellow Q PHOTO IN STALLATION". A&O center of gravity, Berlin
- 1992 “Retrospective”. Photo gallery Friedrichshain, Berlin
- 1991 "Hans Martin Sewcz". Galerie Raab, Berlin
Participation in exhibitions (selection)
- 2014/2015 "Art and Politics" Altes Rathaus Wittlich, 10 August 2014 to 31 January 2015
- 2010 "Berlin Pictures". Works from the Berliner Bank Collection and Deutsche Bank, Kunsthalle Koidl, Berlin
- 2010 "From the not so distant time". Wall memorial of the German Bundestag, Berlin
- 2009/2010 "20 years of German unity". Kunsthalle Schweinfurt
- 2009 “People-Places-Times”. German Historical Museum, Berlin
- 2008 “Of Art and Politics”. Photography in the collection of the German Bundestag, Berlin, Brussels
- 2005 “The portrait in the XX. Century". German Historical Museum, Berlin
- 2004 “The XX. Century". German Historical Museum, Berlin
- 1999 “Unity and Law and Freedom”. DHM in the Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin
- 1996 "Wh (H) re Art". DHM, Berlin / Open House of Culture, Linz
- 1993/1994 "MuZ-Developing a New Product". Design Museum, London
- 1993 "German Art with Photography". German Photo Days, German Architecture Museum, Frankfurt am Main
- 1993 “Annual Laboratory One Report”. Berlinische Galerie in the Martin Gropius-Bau, Berlin
- 1990 "Change of gait". Rackham Center Galleries Ann Arbor, Michigan Gallery Detroit, Artcite Ontario, Center for Creative Studies Detroit
- 1985 “On common paths”. National Gallery, East Berlin
Works in public collections
- Brandenburg art collections, Cottbus
- Deutsche Bank, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main
- German Historical Museum, Berlin
- Design Museum, London
- Ministry of Education, Schwerin
- Art collection of the German Bundestag, Berlin
- New Berlin Art Association, Berlin
- Berlinische Galerie, State Museum for Modern Art, Photography and Architecture, Berlin
- Sal. Oppenheim collection, Cologne
- Stadt- und Kreissparkasse Leipzig
- State Art Collections Dresden
- State Museum Schwerin
- State Gallery Stuttgart
- Foundation House of the History of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn
Installation / art in construction
- 2009 "Industrial Vegetation III", third prize sculpture competition 2009, BUGA - outdoor project solar center Wietow near Wismar
- 2001 "Industrial Vegetation I", "Landfraktale 2001", Neuenstein Castle, Hesse
- 1998 "Braille", lobby of the Sparkasse Uecker-Randow
Videos
- 2007 Film program for the exhibition “From Art and Politics” photography in the collection of the German Bundestag / Kabinett des Kunst-Raum, Berlin
- 2001 Museum for Communication, Berlin
- 1998 The 21st Tokyo Video Festival, Tokyo
- 1997 "CIRCLES OF CONFUSION 3". Red Salon / Volksbühne, Berlin
literature
Illustrations in illustrated books
- Ralf Ulrich: GDR design. Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2008, ISBN 978-3-8228-3216-5 .
- Hans Christian Adam: Berlin. Benedikt Taschen Verlag, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-8228-1445-1 .
- Enno Stahl: German Trash Prosa. Druckhaus Galrev, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-910161-74-X .
- Georg Chr. Bertsch, Ernst Hedler, Matthias Dietz: SED Beautiful uniform design. Taschen Verlag, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-8228-0403-7 .
Catalogs
- Dieter Vorsteher, Heike Hartmann: People, Places, Times. Edition Braus Berlin, Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-89466-279-0 .
- Dieter Vorsteher, Andreas Quermann (on behalf of the German Historical Museum, Berlin): The portrait in the XX. Century. German Historical Museum, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86102-137-4 .
- Dieter Vorsteher and Maike Steinkamp on behalf of the German Historical Museum, Berlin: The XX. Century. Edition Braus, Heidelberg 2004, ISBN 3-89904-108-9 .
- Kornelia von Berswordt-Wallrabe , State Museum Schwerin: Hans Martin Sewcz. Installation 23.1.-2.3.1997. State Museum Schwerin, 1997, ISBN 3-86106-025-6 .
Web links
- "From the not so distant time" in the Wall Memorial of the German Bundestag 2010
- Interview Architekturzeitung 2010
- Homepage Hans Martin Sewcz
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Katharina Hausel: The fugitive. GDR recordings from the 70s and 80s by Hans Martin Sewcz. In: Marc Barbey, Collection Regard (Ed.): Berlin-Mitte May 1979. Early photographs by Hans Martin Sewcz. Berlin 2011
- ↑ Kornelia von Berswordt-Wallrabe: State Museum Schwerin: Hans Martin Sewcz. Installation 23.1.-2.3.1997. Schwerin 1997
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sewcz, Hans Martin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German photographer and concept artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1955 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Halle (Saale) |