Just as there was no

So wenig wie

Photo/Text # 65

CR 199. Year 1976

Just As There Was No Photo T65 Jochen Gerz Cr 199 Web

Just as there was no chance that among the various pictures one, more than the others, caught what it showed (in order to replace it), so there was none either that one of these lines could ever ...

Here is a typical case of words and images being so close to each other and yet not in each other’s company. They are literally just like the blind and the deaf and dumb who cannot communicate and ultimately end up in the ditch. No matter how closely one might connect them, words and images never meet. In Gerz’ photo/texts instead of coming each other’s way, they unforgivingly diverge.

Ulrich Keller 1979. Translated by e_CR editors

Beispielhaft wiederholt sich hier der heute typische Fall, daß Wörter und Bilder sich in nächster Nähe und doch nicht in Gesellschaft befinden. Sie sind wie der sprichwörtliche Blinde und Taubstumme, die sich nicht verständigen können und schließlich im Graben landen. So eng man sie koppeln mag, Wörter und Bilder treffen sich nie; statt sich auch nur "entgegenzukommen", streben sie in den Gerzschen Fototexten unversöhnlich auseinander.

Ulrich Keller 1979

Categories

Photo/Text

5 framed b+w photographs, 1 framed text (typed on paper), each 13,5 x 18,5 cm, total 27,8 x 83,6 cm, non-exhibited left-right reversed manuscript (ink on paper), stamped: gelebt/nicht gelebt, signed and dated leftright reversed: Jochen Gerz 21/5/76

In addition to the German original a German exhibition version exists at Studio Gerz. An English translation has been authorized as well.

Courtesy Módulo-Centro Difusor de Arte, Lisboa/Porto

Museum Wiesbaden

Exhibitions

Hannover 1978. Porto 1978 (Lisboa 1979). Klagenfurt 1993. Vancouver 1994 (Newport Beach 1995. Purchase 1996. Winnipeg 1996/97). Essen 2002

Bibliography

I: Kassel 1977b, pp. 234-235. Hannover 1978, pp. 72-75. Vancouver 1994, p. 55. Essen 2002, pp. 64-65

V: Weiss 1984, p. 161

Access general bibliography

My name is Jochen Gerz