Joachim Seinfeld

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Joachim Seinfeld (* 1962 in Paris ) is a German photographer , installation artist and documentary filmmaker .

Life

Joachim Seinfeld was born in Paris and spent his childhood and youth in Munich until 1981. He then studied painting from 1981 to 1987 at the Art Academy in Florence. From 1987 to 1995 he lived in Oldenburg, where he was a member of the Karg studio community and producer gallery . From 1994 to 1995 he spent two years in Poland while working on the project “50 Years of Auschwitz”. He has lived and worked in Berlin since 1995. Seinfeld is actively involved against anti-Semitism.

Artistic work

Photographic Techniques

Seinfeld uses many different techniques for his photo series. He mostly uses black and white photographs in which he composes a new one from two different photos. He works with liquid photo emulsion and silver gelatine , which he applies to various surfaces, which are thus sensitive to light and on which the photos can be displayed. For his photo series for the group exhibition re-construction of time in Berlin (2008) he created a collage of historical photos with photos of the present on a travertine stone carpet. The surface of the stones results in light-dark contrasts , which the photos supposedly old act and authentic. Seinfeld's aim is to make it clear how we deal with personal memories: “We use these memories. We often manipulate and trigger them, sometimes we also remove them - mainly to justify our behavior at a specific moment, occasionally also to be able to reflect and understand our reactions. ”He thus determines people's behavior and thought processes through his photographic Techniques visualized and on the subject of an artistic discourse.

In 2012, together with the artist Claus Feldmann and Michael Zirn Photography GmbH, he produced the world's largest photo emulsion for the Swiss Pavilion for the Venice Biennale on behalf of the Pro Helvetia Foundation . The architect Miroslav Šik represented Switzerland for the Architecture Biennale and had And Now the Ensemble! designed a visual manifesto to cover all the walls of the pavilion. The 58 meter long and 5 meter high photo emulsion covered 286 m² and was applied directly to the plaster.

Subjects of his photo series

"I like to work on questions of identity, time and perception."

"I like to work on questions of identity, time and perception."

- Joachim Seinfeld : Los Angeles Times , 2007

The fascination for the interface between personal, national and religious feelings of identity can be found regularly in the subjects of Seinfeld's photo series.

  • In 2005 he created the work When Germans are Funny - Docufiction: Asch 1938 for the Biennale for Contemporary Art National Gallery in Prague . The basis for the photo is a historical photo showing the arrival of the Germans in the city of Asch. Seinfeld added another shot of Jews forcibly cleaning the streets. As a further new element, the photographer has integrated himself into the picture as the perpetrator. The work is part of a series of photos in which Joachim Seinfeld deals with the topic of German identity. Another photo in this series (taken in 2012) shows him in the Bürgerbräukeller in Munich, shortly after the attack on Hitler. In doing so, Seinfeld poses the question of our perception of photos as a source of absolute historical truth and illustrates how necessary it is to be skeptical.
  • In 2009 Joachim Seinfeld began a series of photo portraits of residents of the Marzahn-Hellersdorf district , which were exhibited in 2014 under the title Stadt Rand Leben . He photographed well-known residents of the district - such as B. Petra Pau or the district mayor Stefan Komoss  - as well as unknown people. In conversations with those portrayed, places that were important to them in the district often crystallized, so that each portrait consists of two images: on the one hand, the photo of the person portrayed and, on the other hand, another image that represents a place that is important to that person in the district shows. The background to this photo research is the often rather negative media coverage of the area, which Seinfeld wanted to counter with the perception of a colorful and lively district.
  • In Seinfeld's exhibition Beisl Balagan (2009) in the Fabs Gallery in Warsaw, the artist addresses the upheaval in the Eastern Bloc caused by perestroika , the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Poland's accession to the European Union . Here, too, he was interested in the question of how people can maintain a sense of identity in this situation. Beisl Balagan is a combination of two Yiddish words, Beisl (house) and Balagan (total chaos). The expression describes a situation of upheaval. This work was based on old photos that Seinfeld took during his time in Poland (1994 to 1995). There were also newly made black and white self-portraits showing him in various roles. So he stands u. a. in front of a monument in the style of socialist realism , or he presents himself as a pilot. The new image created from these components was placed on a painted background with the help of photo emulsion . This makes the photos look old and historic.
  • For the exhibition Neighbors (2011), Seinfeld used old paintings that he discovered by chance in houses in eastern Berlin. They were applied directly to the wall , similar to frescoes . He removed these and used them by fusing them together with archive material using the photo emulsion to form new photographs. It was his intention to preserve the wall paintings as part of the collective memory of Berlin and at the same time to show how they are dealt with in the present. These relics disappear without a trace in the course of renovations and demolitions of houses.

Seinfeld's technique of composing a unique new photo from old, existing and newly designed images that looks historical but always raises questions about authenticity was aptly referred to by journalist Joanna Kiwilszo with the term documentary fictions (in the original documentalną fikcją ) named. This ambiguity runs through all works Seinfeld, featuring his style.

Exhibition L'Chaim - To Life

Joachim Seinfeld is involved in the Kreuzberg initiative against anti-Semitism . The group designs cultural and educational offers against anti-Semitic attitudes in the population. In 2015, Joachim Seinfeld and Lukas Welz began working on the exhibition L'Chaim - Auf das Leben on behalf of the initiative . The subtitle of the exhibition Discovering the Diversity of Jewish Life in Berlin describes what the intention of this project was: not the tragic past of the Jews in the Shoah , but the everyday life of the present of the Jews should be in the foreground of the exhibition. In 37 video interviews, 31 Jewish and six non-Jewish residents of Berlin were presented: “From the traditional community rabbi from New York to a former communist Jew from the GDR to the gangster rapper whose family comes from the Ukraine, everything is represented. This colorful cross-section makes it clear: As diverse as Berlin is, the Jewish life in the city unfolds just as differently. ”Seinfeld filmed and edited the interviews himself.

The exhibition is conceived as a traveling exhibition and was first shown in the Berlin House of Representatives in 2017 as part of the Berlin Jewish Culture Days. In other stations in Berlin, the exhibition was presented to very different groups, from young people in a recreational facility to students in an office management school to refugees who attended German courses. This very clearly reflects the intention of the exhibition organizers to reach as many different groups of - especially young - people as possible with this project. In parallel to the presentation of the videos and background information on various topics of everyday Jewish life, it was important for the initiative to offer educational material for teachers and students: “In concrete terms, this means that there is material accompanying the exhibition in different language levels and with different content. In addition to worksheets for intermediate level ( secondary level I ) and upper level ( secondary level II ), we have developed worksheets that are also suitable for 8th grade or classes with a low concentration span. ”As part of the project, Joachim Seinfeld gave a series of seminars at the Alice Salomon University in Berlin in Berlin, where the students visited the exhibition and worked on their own questions. The exhibition and the accompanying material are available in three languages: German, English and Arabic. In the further course of the traveling exhibition, not only Jewish citizens of Berlin will be presented, but contemporary Jewish life throughout Germany will be portrayed in individual interviews.

Works in collections

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • 2005: Friendly Fire, Meinblau project space, Berlin
  • 2009: Beisl Balagan - Podróż do Polski, Warsaw, Poland
  • 2011: Joachim Seinfeld, Schneidertempel Art Center, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 2014: StadtRandLeben, Galerie M, Berlin
  • 2016: HeimatReisen , project for the art vending machine in the Jewish Museum Berlin

Participation in exhibitions (selection)

literature

  • State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Ed.): Representations of Auschwitz: 50 Years of Photographs, Paintings, and Graphics . Auschwitz 1995, ISBN 83-8504750-6 (English).
  • Knut Dethlefsen, Thomas B. Hebler (eds.): Images in the head / Obrazy w głowie: Auschwitz / Oświęcim - Faces of a Place (=  series of publications by the Fritz Bauer Institute , Frankfurt am Main . Volume 12 ). Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-89468-236-1 (Polish, German, part of: Anne Frank Shoah Library ).
  • Museum Education Service (Ed.): Leerzeit. Paths through the Jewish Museum Berlin . Berlin 2000.
  • Gustav Meyrink : The Golem . Tartarus Press, Leyburn 2004, ISBN 1-872621-85-6 (cover illustration by Joachim Seinfeld).
  • Portrayal-Betrayal: Santa Barbara Museum of Art: Photographic Portraits from the Permanent Collection . Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara 2012, ISBN 978-0-89951-114-6 (English).
  • Egbert Baqué: A Tribute to David Bowie HAUPTSTRASSE The Berlin Years 1976-1978 . Egbert Baqué Contemporary Art, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-00-042031-3 (English).
  • Joachim Seinfeld: StadtRandLeben . Galerie M, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-00-047998-4 .
  • Simon Ward: Urban Memory and Visual Culture in Berlin: Framing the Asynchronous City, 1957–2012 . Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2016, ISBN 978-90-8964-853-2 (English).
  • Emily D. Bilski; Martina Lüdicke; on behalf of the Jewish Museum Berlin (ed.): Golem . Kerber, Bielefeld, ISBN 978-3-7356-0277-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ arthouse 2009. Joachim Seinfeld. (PDF) In: instantdreams.net. January 4, 2009, pp. 15-21 , accessed October 22, 2019 .
  2. ↑ State Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau (ed.): Representations of Auschwitz: 50 Years of Photographs, Paintings, and Graphics . Auschwitz 1995, ISBN 83-8504750-6 (English).
  3. ↑ Media art from Berlin. In: gdk-berlin.de (Gallery of the Arts Berlin). Retrieved January 10, 2020 .
  4. ^ Kreuzberg initiative against anti-Semitism. (PDF; 5.1 MB) In: kiga-berlin.org. June 25, 2019, accessed October 22, 2019 .
  5. ^ Re-construction of time. (PDF; 120 kB) In: ar5tmbassy.com. March 27, 2008, accessed November 10, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Michael Zirn: Venice Biennale 2012. In: michael-zirn.de. August 23, 2012, accessed October 30, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Jeffrey Fleishman: 2007 A wild art scene now stays within the lines. In: Los Angeles Times. July 6, 2007, accessed November 10, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Artworks. Joachim Seinfeld. In: celesteprize.com. Retrieved November 11, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Kristina Niemann: Two exhibitions, now also an illustrated book. Colorful diversity in black and white. In: lichtenbergmarzahnplus.de. September 19, 2014, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Jayjant Cavale: Joachim Seinfeld Explores Identity and Historical Reality. In: thefiendish.com. March 20, 2009, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  11. ↑ a b Beisl-Balagan. In: npg.pl. Retrieved November 10, 2019 .
  12. ^ Flavia Montecchi: Joachim Seinfeld: Neighbors. (PDF; 546 kB) In: artmbassy.com. February 7, 2012, accessed November 17, 2019 .
  13. ^ Jérôme Lombard: Explore the new Jewish Berlin. The exhibition "L'Chaim - Auf das Leben!" Portrays the everyday life of Jewish Berliners. In: neue-deutschland.de . November 8, 2017, accessed November 20, 2019 .
  14. ↑ L'Chaim - To life! In: parlament-berlin.de. Retrieved November 20, 2019 .
  15. ↑ a b Joachim Seinfeld, Luisa Bläse: L'Chaim - To life! - Discover the diversity of Jewish life in Berlin - and beyond Berlin . In: German Coordinating Council of Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation (ed.): Anti-Semitism in contemporary social debates: tendencies, manifestations, counteraction. Conference at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main November 29, 2018 from 28 to . Evangelical Press Service , Frankfurt am Main June 4, 2019, p. 55–59 , p. 57 ( deutscher-koordinierungsrat.de [PDF; 913 kB ; accessed on November 20, 2019]).
  16. ↑ Joachim Seinfeld, Luisa Bläse: L'Chaim - To life! - Discover the diversity of Jewish life in Berlin - and beyond Berlin . In: German Coordinating Council of Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation (ed.): Anti-Semitism in contemporary social debates: tendencies, manifestations, counteraction. Conference at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main from 28 to 29 November 2018 (=  EPD documentation . No. 23 ). Protestant Press, Frankfurt am Main June 4, 2019, S. 55–59 , p. 56 ( deutscher-koordinierungsrat.de [PDF; 913 kB ; accessed on November 20, 2019]).
  17. ↑ Joachim Seinfeld, Luisa Bläse: L'Chaim - To life! - Discover the diversity of Jewish life in Berlin - and beyond Berlin . In: German Coordinating Council of Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation (ed.): Anti-Semitism in contemporary social debates: tendencies, manifestations, counteraction. Conference at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main from 28 to 29 November 2018 (=  EPD documentation . No. 23 ). Evangelical Press Service , Frankfurt am Main June 4, 2019, p. 55–59 , p. 58 ( deutscher-koordinierungsrat.de [PDF; 913 kB ; accessed on November 20, 2019]).
  18. ^ The collection of the municipal gallery. In: luedenscheid.de. Retrieved September 9, 2019 .
  19. ^ Uwe Obier: Artists' Heads: Volume 2. Exhibition and catalog . City of Lüdenscheid, Lüdenscheid 2003, ISBN 3-929614-48-0 .
  20. ^ Collections and funds. Visual arts: Photography and new media. In: jewishmuseum.cz. Retrieved August 24, 2019 .
  21. ^ Archive 2005: Friendly Fire - Seinfeld im meinblau. In: meinblau.de. Retrieved September 25, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Joanna Kiwilszo: Beisl Balagan. In: NGP.pl. Nova Gazetta Praska, accessed November 10, 2019 .
  23. ↑ Jaiyant Cavale: Joachim Seinfeld Explores Identity and Historical Reality. In: TheFiendish.com. March 20, 2009, accessed November 10, 2019 .
  24. ↑ Handan Önel: Tailor Temple Sanat Merkezi Sezonu Joachim Seinfeld Ile Aciyor (Tailor Temple Art Center opens season with Joachim Seinfeld). In: schneidertempel.org. Retrieved September 25, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Harald Ritter: Photographer portrayed citizens of the district. In: Berliner-Woche.de. December 11, 2014, accessed September 25, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Michaela Rossberg: Art must be among the people: The homeland journeys of Joachim Seinfeld. In: jmberlin.de. July 26, 2016, accessed September 25, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Kathrin Klette: Photos against oblivion . In: NZZ . January 27, 2015, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed March 7, 2019]).
  28. ^ A Second Sight. IBCA 2005: International Biennale of Contemporary Art 2005. In: e-flux.com. Retrieved November 18, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Current BMEIA - Notes on the beginning of the short 20th century. In: bmeia.gv.at. Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs , accessed on September 17, 2019 .
  30. ^ Art in the phone booth. Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
  31. ↑ Joachim Seinfeld Archive. In: museum television. Retrieved March 8, 2019 .
  32. ↑ Golem! Avatars d'une légende d'argile. (PDF; 1.6 MB) In: mahj.org. January 19, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  33. ↑ transformation. To Enter Art Foundation Art Exhibition. In: bunkerk101.de. October 27, 2018, accessed November 18, 2019 .
  34. ↑ Current | Biesdorf Castle in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Retrieved June 4, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Bibliography 2001-2005. In: Tartarus Press. Retrieved August 11, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Seinfeld, Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION visual artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris