Reading the Notes
Beim Lesen der Notizen
Photo/Text # 35
CR 169. Year 1974
- EN
- DE
Reading the notes, that could have been written somewhat later, he remembered the situation when the pictures were taken. It was as if his words on the torn-out page of a notebook were both, bridge and obstacle.
Photographs are comparable to language in that they are "reproductions from life" (Jochen Gerz). They are slices of real situations. But they are not what they show, they are just images on the surface, abstractions of reality. Thus, they become something like signs that play different roles, depending on who is watching and reading them. That is the foundation of Jochen Gerz's strategy for awakening our perception. He touches upon our own existence and feelings, shakes the linear thinking that hobbles woodenly from cliché to cliché.
Andreas Vowinkel 1992
Categories
Keywords
Photo/Text
30 framed b+w photographs (one of them cut), 1 framed text (typed on paper), each 13,5 x 18,5 cm, sticker with handwritten text, dated and signed: 13/5/74 Jochen Gerz
The original text exists in a German and an English version.
Courtesy Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris
Archiv für Künstlernachlässe, Pullheim
Exhibitions
Karlsruhe 1975 (Duisburg 1975. Braunschweig 1976). Essen 2002
Bibliography
I: Lichtenberg 1976, pp. 12-27. Hannover 1978, p. 19. Essen 2002, pp. 46-47