Mark Lombardi

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Mark Lombardi (born March 23, 1951 in Syracuse , New York ; † March 22, 2000 in Williamsburg , Brooklyn , ibid) was an American artist who was best known for his handcrafted sociograms , the political-economic power structures present in an aesthetically prepared form.

Life

While studying art history at Syracuse University , the Watergate affair sparked his interest in political scandals. In 1975 he worked in Houston at the Museum for Contemporary Arts as assistant to director Jim Harithas. From 1976 Lombardi worked as a librarian in a public library. He subscribed to up to five daily newspapers and read several books a week, especially those by investigative journalists like Pete Brewton ( The Mafia, CIA & George Bush , 1992) or Jonathan Kwitny ( The Crimes of Patriots: A True Tale of Dope, Dirty Money and the CIA , 1987), who, after years of research and at times great personal risks, uncovered scandals in politics and business.

Lombardi usually went through the tables of contents of the books, took the names of the key people and transferred activities to index cards. Mark Lombardi accumulated around 14,000 index cards during his lifetime. Lombardi's research became more and more time-consuming and labor-intensive and soon resulted in first sketches and finally in large graphic formats. For reasons of credibility and security, he obtained his information exclusively from publicly available media.

Lombardi's work became known to an ever larger audience. In 2000, they should also be exhibited in large and well-known galleries and museums in New York. Just a few weeks before the exhibition in the New York Museum PS 1 , his masterpiece BCCI –ICIC & FAB, 1972–1991 was destroyed by the sprinkler system in his studio going on , the background of which has never been clarified. He worked day and night for a week to restore the work so that it could still be shown at the exhibition. Three weeks after the incident with the sprinkler system, i.e. a few days after the exhibition, Mark Lombardi was found hanged in his studio. His girlfriend at the time said in an interview that Mark had taken considerable amounts of paracetamol to reconstruct the BCCI image and had hardly slept. After his body was found, his parents were allowed to visit him twice, and the mother noticed that some objects and the messages on his answering machine had disappeared. The coroner and police classified Lombardi's death as a suicide . Today it is known that Lombardi has been monitored by the US Federal Police FBI for a long time and has received threatening phone calls.

Sociograms

He always kept his detailed diagrams about political power structures, financial intrigues and scandals up to date. Examples of this are the links between BCCI , Lincoln Savings, World Finance of Miami, the Vatican Bank , Opus Dei , Silverado Savings, George W. Bush and Harken Energy. The revolutionary artistic innovation consisted in the aesthetic illustration of complex power structures and mafia-like networks. At first glance you can see clear structures between the various institutions and people.

The sociograms partly consist of up to three hundred names from the environment as well as the inner circle of well-known corporations including political and terrorist networks. Arrows represent the connections between people. He used a template for the mostly curved connections. Short notes and information supplement names and arrows. Black lines mark the general course of events as well as economic transactions, red markings represent lawsuits, bribery and criminal activities. Lombardi called his diagrams "narrative structures" .

The National Security Archive in Washington and the international anti-corruption agency Transparency International , based in Berlin, expressed interest in Lombardi's estate.

Quotes

  • The effect of his pictures proves that the man was not a conspiracy theorist , but, on the contrary, did detailed investigative research. A Wall Street Journal journalist who was researching the Bush-bin Laden connection is said to have spent forty minutes in front of a Lombardi graphic and kept mumbling, "Oh, my God."
  • Lombardi's business card read: "Acts of art and conspiracy that despise death ."

publication

  • Lombardi, Mark: Global Networks . Independent Curators International (ICI), New York 2002, ISBN 0-916365-67-0 .

literature

Movies

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Frank Steinhofer: The Lombardi Code. In: Dare. Magazine for art and beyond , accessed on May 1, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b c Teresa Corceiro: Konspirative Art: A film about the life and work of Mark Lombardi . In: 3sat , culture time . June 6, 2012, accessed May 1, 2017 .
  3. ↑ in: Holger Liebs, Asoziales Netz , Süddeutsche Zeitung of January 16, 2004, p. 25.
  4. ↑ ibid.
  5. ↑ Film review by Thomas Barth: Aesthetics of Conspiracy. In: Telepolis of July 5, 2012.
personal data
SURNAME Lombardi, Mark
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American artist
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Syracuse , New York
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 2000
Place of death Williamsburg , Brooklyn , New York City