ZEITZEUGEN

The exhibition

ZEITZEUGEN

Photographs by Volker Schrank

Thursday 22 July – Friday 20 August 2010

“Photography is the archeology of time. It reveals layers of memory that otherwise only appear as vague shadows, as a distant echo and feeling of déja-vu.“
Jens Christian Grøndahl

Topfpflanzen [Potted Plants] and Radios: Volker Schrank’s contemporary witnesses of societal change are both symbols of our everyday lives as well as metaphors of our variable tastes and constantly changing fashions. Upon hearing the each series’ title, a dictionary entry comes to mind. However, one could hardly imagine more contrasting subject matters. Plants on one side, technical consumer goods on the other, living organisms on one hand, designed matter on the other, nature versus technology.
Volker Schrank approaches these very different objects in a similar, formal manner. He isolates his objects and removes the visual context we usually see them in. Instead, he places them in front of a monochrome background: the plants in front of a deep black, the radios on a tabletop with a red, blue or brown background.

Volker Schrank’s seemingly objective, distanced photographs are neither plain botanical taxonomy nor a full color catalog with pretty objects that used to exist. They communicate memories that make a society connect and the collective feeling of time, which Hans Magnus Enzensberger speaks of, interpreting the dictum “photography is the archeology of time” anew.

• Contact

Exhibition opening
Wednesday, 21 July 2010 at 7.30 pm
bildkultur | galerie, Markelstr. 19, 70193 Stuttgart


Introduction
Dr. Matthias Bullinger
bildkultur Stuttgart


The exhibition is on view
Thursday 22 July – Friday 20 August 2010


Gallery hours
Monday and Wednesday 5 pm – 7 pm
and on appointment