_s.jpg "DERNR_2024_LNAX(AUS DEM SCHOCK RAUS. FRUST ZUM KAMPF NUTZEN.)* Translated from German: \"Shake off the shock. Use frustration for the fight.\"")
Date: 03.05.2024
A month before the elections to the European Parliament, we all observe with concern the rise of right‐wing ideologies in Germany and Europe at large. Many of us are troubled by our inability to foresee this trend and feel frustrated. As a form of self‐therapy and an attempt to reflect our society’s moods and fears, we decided to go public and encourage people to voice their opinions more loudly and visibly. Tired of the artificial and overly promising election posters that clutter our streets, we chose to appropriate the medium of an election poster, transforming it into an interface where a person becomes a representative of an idea.
Our new project, Lilienstraße, aims to create an unbiased collection of societal positions and opinions in Germany and beyond, starting in 2024. We primarily focus on individuals in the state of Brandenburg who are neither politicians nor public opinion leaders. Through reciprocal dialogue between the participants and the artist, brief and concise formulations that reflect the positions of depicted persons are being developed. This anthropological approach offers a platform for those who feel underrepresented in the current political discourse to express themselves and their milieu.
On both visual and textual levels, the project investigates how the political versus private image of a citizen is formed and what visually constitutes the image of a homo politicus. It examines the impact of individual or group staging, the inclusion of a quote as text within the image, and the deliberate choice of background on perception. The opinions are categorized into the following groups: the Angry, the Worried, the Optimistic, the Secure, the Undecided, and the Enraged.
The concept of this project is inspired by the historical work of notable German photographer August Sander (1876–1964) and the renowned exhibition The Family of Man (1955, New York) curated by art historian Edward Steichen. Theoretically, the project draws on Horst Bredekamp’s theory of Bildakt (2007) and Wolfgang Kemp’s reception aesthetics approach (1991).
Our project is designed to extend over a longer period.