Objects are withdrawing from me more and more
Mehr und mehr ziehen sich die Gegenstände von mir zurück
De plus en plus les objets se détachent de moi
CR 44. Year 1973/1974
- EN
- DE
For some time he had noticed that objects were moving away from him and he could often no longer touch them. He said: "Objects are withdrawing from me more and more..."
Kunst hat - so sieht es Jochen Gerz - viel mit Energien zu tun, die weder über das Medium Bild noch über das Medium Bild übertragbar sind. Wie Duchamp aber unter Ausschluß eines greifbaren Kunstobjekts, sieht er in der Kunst ein zweipoliges Produkt, entstehend zwischen Menschen in unmittelbarer Kommunikation miteinander. Da das Wesentliche in der Kunst also nicht … vermittelt werden kann, wäre es - so Gerz - nur konsequent, nicht zu produzieren. Auf der anderen Seite aber die Versuchung, sich der Medien zu bedienen, und sei es nur, um … offenzulegen, … was Kunstproduktion nicht vermag. Stets diesem dialektischen Prozeß Produktion - Nichproduktion ausgeliefert, arrangiert sich Gerz auf ungewöhnliche Weise: Er versucht auf das ihm Wesentliche in seiner Negation aufmerksam zu machen.
Margarethe Jochimsen 1975
In the mid-seventies, artistic recognition begins to reward several exhibits. This does not eliminate Gerz’ doubts of art and his own cultural identity but increases them. The installations ‘Objects are Withdrawing from me More and More’ (44), ‘The Self-Portrait’ (45) and ‘A Danish Exorcism’ (50) reflect these doubts. The role of art, the artist, the art business and the viewer are again debated. The debate finds its expression in autobiographic texts that are part of the exhibited work. These musings are the beginning of new, embracing and self-distanced artistic strategies.
Volker Rattemeyer, Renate Petzinger 1999
His 1973 installation, Objects Are Withdrawing From Me More and More, tells us how objects, words — everything that takes material form and endures beyond lived time — withdraws from a man’s life, becoming increasingly remote…
Octave Debary 2017
Il réalise l’installation De plus en plus les objets se détachent de moi (1973), qui raconte comment les objets, les mots, tout ce qui se matérialise ou reste au-delà du temps vécu, se détache et s’éloigne de la vie d’un homme…
Octave Debary 2017
Categories
Keywords
Installation
1st version: 8 objects (painted over with photographic opaque), showcase, 5 b/w photographs, each 80 x 120 cm, black bound manuscript (photographic opaque on paper), 2 sheets, each 24 x 33 cm, table, chair, monitor, video camera
2nd version: 8 objects, (painted over with photographic opaque), rough board (painted over with photographic opaque), 2,2 x 400 x 20 cm, 5 b/w photographs, framed, each 24 x 32 cm, rough wooden wall, 100 x 400 x 4 cm, typescript (screenprint on photographic vellum), 112 x 89 cm.
A wooden board with eight objects protrudes horizontally into the room. The board and the objects are painted with photographic opaque. The board is anchored on one side in a rough, slanting wooden wall on which five photographs are mounted. A typescript hangs on the wall behind it.
The photographs are also part of the installation entitled Die Schönheit der Netzhaut (The beauty of the retina, 61).
Sammlung Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung im Sprengel Museum Hannover.
Exhibition
Malmö 1975. San Francisco 1986 (Los Angeles 1986. New York 1986). Vancouver 1994 (Newport Beach 1995. Purchase 1996. Winnipeg 1995/96). Wiesbaden 1997
Bibliography
I: Karlsruhe 1975a, pp. 14, 134-138. Paris 1975a, pp. 14, 44-47, 62-63. Bielefeld 1985, pp. 28-29, 196. San Francisco 1986, pp. 74-77. Düsseldorf 1988, pp. 36-39. Montréal 1993, pp. 14, 22. Vancouver 1994, p. 56-58. Nürnberg 1996, p. 214. Wiesbaden 1997, pp. 10, 46- 54, Ivry-sur-Seine 2017, pp. 66, 166-167
II: Metken 1975, p. 139. Bleiberg 1995, p. 4. Bonekämper 1997. Fischer 3, 1997. IV: Acts 5/1986, pp. 52-53
V: Metken 1977, pp. 127-128. Wolf 1992, pp. 191, 224