Martin Dammann

Fremde Freunde

In the exhibition Fremde Freunde, the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen presents a broad overview of the work of Friedrichshafen-born artist Martin Dammann, who lives and works in Berlin. On view are about 50 large-format watercolors and drawings, as well as photographs and videos. For his paintings, Dammann draws on original photographs and film clips from the First and Second World War, which he has compiled into an archive. The war itself often features only marginally in the images he has selected—more as a thematic backdrop than as a visual one. Rather, as in the Soldier Studies series, it is the private moments and leisure activities of soldiers on the fringes of combat that capture his attention.

When the photographs are rendered using the technique of watercolor painting, they lose their supposed unambiguity. The aesthetic effect of the watercolor transfigures the fraught reality of the photograph. Faces and actions become indistinct and dissolve into empty spaces; architecture and landscape blur into abstract swaths of color; at the same time, unburdened motifs are overlaid with titles laden with meaning. In his art, Martin Dammann explores the relationship between media coverage and historical reality—between photography, painting, and depicted reality.

A catalog of the same name is being published to accompany the exhibition.