Martin Dammann
Vanishing Point
The artist Martin Dammann addresses a highly emotional and topical issue, i.e. the interplay between war, media coverage and its impact on our perception. Original photos and footage from around WWI. to the Kosovo conflict and the standard methods of modern warfare form the basis of the large-size water-colour paintings, video works and photo series put on show. The artist draws inspiration and material from his work for the London-based Archives of Modern Conflict as he has been in charge of acquiring photos for the collection specialising in private war photography for some years.
The first section of the exhibition highlights the latest works of the painter Martin Dammann. Photos of military and war scenes or partly private pictures, idyllic at first sight but evoking associations with war on closer inspection, serve as a model for his more than 2-metre large watercolours. “I am not interested in the photo as such but in the occasion giving rise to it“ (quote: Martin Dammann). The artist cautiously approaches the medium of photography and deprives the brief moment in which the photo was taken of any claim to reality by transforming it with the “soft“ technique of watercolour painting. This allows the onlooker to engage in a novel, subjective play of interpretation.
His video Abgang produced in 2003 shows a bird’s eye view of a model landscape with loosely placed cars, buildings, etc. falling from the 4th floor of a residential building. The video camera, which was also dropped from the building but caught falling by a bungee-jumping rope, filmed the successive disintegration of the model during free fall and its complete destruction through the impact. At the moment of disintegration the camera briefly seems to fly through space and to transmit images of stumbling rocks and houses. The subsequently appearing real scenery of a backyard spotlights the viewers’ desire for the dissolution of their own world and images. For the video Wo created in 1999 during his stay in London Dammann filmed the landing of passenger air planes at Heathrow trying to focus on the exact point where the air planes that had disappeared in the clouds were re-emerging. Most of the time the viewer is faced with a white screen of clouds, which reveals those aspects making aware of the nonvisible.
Martin Dammann uses photos from the collection of the Archives of Modern Conflict in London as models for the largeformat series of reproductions titled Überdeutschland. The pictures taken from air planes and hot-air balloons during WWII. do not show the reality of the war but the failure of photography to depict this reality. In the extremely sharp and large prints of the (small) originals the reality of the depicted object blends with the materiality of the photographic paper. The selection of aerial photos reflects the focus of reconnaissance photos on surveillance playing a crucial role especially in modern warfare. The large-format works impress for their physical presence and force the onlooker to view them from some distance. At the same time, they lend a dimension of horror to the meaning of the motif and the historical testimony of the selected material and seem to be anchored in the present.
Dammann’s walk-in installation Mezquita consists in a 3 x 3 x 3 m cube. The walls from reflective foil show both from the inside and outside three views of a war plane mounted in the “forest of columns” of the Mezquita (mosque) in Cordoba/Spain. Standing in the cube, the visitors can experience the air plane simultaneously from three different perspectives, which always seems to define their respective position. Through the multi-focal view, the onlooker seems to be swept away by the paradoxical feeling of being in the centre of a panorama but being unable to find a clear position in the physically real space. With this work created in 1996, which is now again of great topical interest due to the conflict between Islam and the Western world, Martin Dammann addresses the repetition of the clash of two formal principles. The originally Moorish mosque of the 8th century, which was Christianised and partly transformed into a Cathedral in the 16th century by Charles V., is subject to another confrontation as its static architecture is penetrated by the implicitly dynamic body of a war aircraft.
It is the “strong” wartime images that emotionally touch the artist. As Dammann transforms them into different media the onlooker is confronted with two semantic fields: the individual, personal on the one hand and the general powerful impact of images and historiography on the other hand. The subject highlighted is the changed perception of reality due to the growing influence of mass-mediasation on our personal attitudes and values. All works on show have to do with dissolution, penetration and disappearance and are linked by the longing for reaching a point of reality in the images that is outside themselves, a point that seems to gradually move away. Vanishing point.
Biography
born 1965 in Friedrichshafen/Bodensee, lives and works in Berlin
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2018
"Abstieg", InSitu - Fabienne Leclerc, Paris
2017
Kein schöner Land, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
2016
Schuld, Galerie InSitu – Fabienne Leclerc, Paris
2015
Zum Resultat beruhigter Tumult, Kunsthalle, Nuernberg
weiter weg, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
2014
Martin Dammann. Mit dem Rücken zur Wand, Märkisches Museum Witten (im Rahmen von 25 Jahre / 25 Künstler / 25 Bilder, Kunstsiftung NRW)
Zeichnungen, In Situ – Fabienne Leclerc, Paris
Dieses Feuer, Atelier Rouart, Paris
aus dem über heraus, Kunstsaele Berlin
2013
Galerie InSitu – Fabienne Leclerc, Paris
Goodbye Paradise – Landschaftsbilder gestern und heute, Kunsthalle Osnabrück
Nur hier, Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Ankäufe, von 2007 bis 2011, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn
2012
Blind Spot, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2011
gegen über, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
Frauen, In Situ / Fabienne Leclerc, Paris
2009
Malerei-Zeichnung, Kunstverein Konstanz, Constance
Soldier Studies und Neue Malerei, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
Fremde Freunde, Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen
2008
Zweite Totale, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2007
Repromancer, Kunstverein Arnsberg e.V., Arnsberg
2006
Collecting militaria gives you something to talk about, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
2005
Vanishing Point, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Überdeutschland, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
Vanishing Point 2, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2003
New Works, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
2002
Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin
1998
Transmission, Espace des Arts, Chalon-sur-Saône
Blitz Licht, Kunstruimte, Berlin
1996
Galerie Herold, Bremen
1995
Galerie 21, St. Petersburg
Selected Group Exhibitions
2018
CONCENTRATION - a tribute, Gesellschaft für projektive Ästhetik Georg Kargl, Vienna
2017
ZWANZIG 20 years Galerie Barbara Thumm, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
"En marge", InSitu- Fabienne Leclerc, Paris
Group-Picture, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
2015
Fire and Forget. On Violence, Kunstwerke Berlin
The Beast and the Sovereign, MACBA – Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona
BER-DTM-HNL – Fasten your seatbelts, HMKV, Dortmund
2014
DER KUBIST MARCEL DUCHAMP MAG NICHT MALEN, Thomas Schulte, Berlin
Summerstage, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
Emotionsräume, Kunstverein Talstraße, Halle/Saale
Kunst Oberschwaben 20. Jahrhundert – 1970 bis heute, Schloss Achberg, Achberg, Germany
2013
Donation Florence et Daniel Guerlain, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Goodbye Paradise – Landschaftsbilder gestern und heute, Kunsthalle Osnabrueck
Spur der Steine, Alte Feuerwache, Kulturhaus Friedrichshain, Berlin
Nur hier, Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der BRD Ankäufe von 2007-2011, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der BRD, Bonn
Bremer Schule, ESSEN UND TRINKEN MUSUEM, Berlin
2012
Mohrenshow, Wurlitzer Art, Berlin
Choses vues á Droite et á Gauche (sans lunettes), Ballhaus Ost Berlin, Berlin
2011
10 Years Autocenter, Autocenter, Berlin
Rollenbilder.Rollenspiele, Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Salzburg
Erika Mustermann Collection, Der Strich, Berlin
EHF 2010, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin
State of the Union, Freies Museum, Berlin
2010
Fine Line, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Einen Ort herstellen, Neuer Sächsicher Kunstverein, Dresden
Family Jewels, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen, Esslingen
A Generation, Petach Tikva Museum of Art Israel, Israel
La Revanche de l´Archive Photographique, Centre de la Photographie, Geneva
2009
Schickeria – High Society, BDA-Ausstellungsraum, Braunschweig
Biennale Venezia, 53rd International Art Exhibition, Venice
Family Jewels, Galerien der Stadt Esslingen, Esslingen
The Fear Society – Pabellon De La Urgencia, Arsenale Novissimo, Venice
2008
Vertrautes Terrain – Aktuelle Kunst in und über Deutschland, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe
Nothing to declare, 4. Triennale zeitgenössischer Kunst Oberschwaben, Friedrichshafen
Wild Signals, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
Quo Vadis, Autocenter, Berlin
2007
Männerfantasien, Chung King Project, Los Angeles (curated by Ellen Blumenstein)
Between the Two Deaths, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe
Malkunst, 2. Aktuelle Malerei in Berlin, Mudima - Fondazione per l’Arte Contemporanea, Milan
2006
VAC – Colección Valencia Arte Contemporáneo, IVAM, Valencia
Don´t talk about it, Berlin
I walk the lines, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
Berlin Tendenzen, La Capella – Institut de Cultura de Barcelona, Barcelona
SPEED, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
2005
Trial of Power, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Berlin (curated by Maik Schlüter)
Richtig Wichtig, PACT, Amsterdam
Good Timing, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Waters and Watercolours, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2004
Foreign Affairs Berlin, Tent Centrum Beeldende Kunst, Rotterdam
From Above, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2003
Video Programme, Galerie Barbara Thumm, Berlin
2001
Einsiedler, Vorübergehend, Museum Folkwang, Essen
Pandaemonium, The Lux Centre, London
2000
Experimental Projects, PS1 - Contemporary Art Center, New York
No Vacancies, Galerie Barbara Thumm/Angelika Richter, Berlin
1999
View, Galerie Eigen & Art, Berlin
Kunstwerke e.V., Berlin
Kunstbank, Berlin
art club berlin, Berlin and AUbase art space, New York
1998
Between, Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, Florida
Sub Fiction, 3. Werkleitz Biennale, Werkleitz
Blockbuster, Kunst + Technik, Berlin
1997
Medienpaket, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe
Hybrid Work Space, Documenta X, Kassel
Kunst + Technik, Berlin
11 Videos, Dogenhaus Projekte, Berlin
L´immagine leggera, Videofestival, Palermo
1996
Auswahl 7. Marler Videopreis, Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten, Marl
Cluster Images, Werkleitz Biennale, Werkleitz
Die 50 besten, Video Award of ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe
Digitale ´96, Photokina/Kunsthochschule für Medien, Cologne
1995
Dirty Windows Gallery, Berlin
Pearls Vol. II, Stiftung Starke, Berlin
1994
Werkstattgalerie Hohentorsheerstraße, Bremen
Ars Grafinova, Ostrobothnian Museum, Vaasa
Inquiry
Please leave your message below.