public space Archive | malenki.net

Böhm #55 – Grand Tourismo

Robert Schlotter — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 20:02:31 +0000

Die Böhm is a fanzine published by Katja Stuke & Oliver Sieber since 1999. Each issue is the juxtaposition of two different bodies of work, one each by Stuke and Sieber, under a single collective title.

Both photographers are concerned primarily with issues surrounding portraiture, the mediated image, the expressions of self-identity influenced by popular culture, in particular youth sub-cultures — Darius Himes, Photobookreview 2012

Die Böhm is published once or twice a year.

Böhm #55, Böhm #56 and Böhm #57 are created with images taken by Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber in and around Cervia (Italy) during their residency at Note di Sguardi (Giovanna Sarti) in 2023.

Der Beitrag Böhm #55 – Grand Tourismo erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

Masse

Robert Schlotter — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 19:10:33 +0000

Michael Gessner’s Masse sheds sharp new light on the signifiers of surveillance embedded in everyday life. Conceived as a sociological exploration of mass behaviour in the digital age, the photo book invites contemplation on the myriad ways in which individuals are monitored – and in which they monitor themselves – as they transition through the blurred boundaries between the digital and the physical.

Masse opens with an image revealing a set of shiny bronze doors. The eye is drawn to a black box angled above its entrance. What does it see? And who is watching? Though the questions remain unanswered, the tone is set for the following pages, which reveal Gessner’s artistic dexterity as he moves seamlessly from hyper-stylised shots of hardware to classic architectural photos, collaged Fitbits, smudged impressions tracing the movement of fingerprints on a screen, and cropped streetscapes in Berlin, Seoul, and New York. Rooftop satellites, radio towers and CCTV cameras are extracted from their surroundings and examined in a detached, exacting style.

Scattered throughout, a series of six abstract works depicts shards of a circuit board splintering into ever smaller fragments – as traces of the surveillance society come into focus, so too does the digital copy of the self become increasingly nuanced. Across Gessner’s works, the restrained seduction of his visual language, executed with unfaltering precision, contrasts starkly with the complexity of the subject his camera examines. Lured into a conceptual panopticon, the viewer looks in from the edge and gazes out from the centre of the mass; at once the observer and the observed.

Der Beitrag Masse erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

Sakae Osugi

Robert Schlotter — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 14:23:34 +0000

Sakae Ōsugi (*1885, †1923) was a Japanese anarchist. He traveled to Europe in 1923 and gave a May Day speech in Saint-Denis. There he was arrested by civilian police. He was sentenced to three weeks in prison and deportation for passport offences. On 2 June he was sent back to Japan where he later was murdered in the »Amakasu Incident«. In his book »My escapes from Japan« he mentiones a »workers’ hall« near the Basilica in Saint-Denis. Most likely he refers to the »Bourse du Travail« of Saint-Denis which was located in the Hotel de Ville at that time. In Feb 2023, almost 100 years after Sakae Ōsugi’s experiences in Saint-Denis, Katja Stuke and Oliver Sieber walked from Hotel de Ville past Passage Saulger, rue des Ursulines and rue Suger until they finally reached Rue Génin, where you find the current Bourse du Travail«. Marie Tesson, the author of the text, constructed an itinerary, taking as her starting point the building where Stuke and Sieber ended their walk: the Bourse du Travail in Saint-Denis. She wanders through this area that is undergoing transformation until reaching the Tour Pleyel, attracted by the melancholy of its already outdated architecture.

Der Beitrag Sakae Osugi erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

Open Equations

Robert Schlotter — Sun, 30 Jul 2023 20:43:00 +0000

In her recent work Open Equations, Laura J. Padgett continues her exploration into public and private space and the places in between. The way in which we structure and delineate our environment is always an expression of our relationship to society and is coincident to the visual. In many situations the gaze replaces our physical ability to enter a particular location.
The artist’s main theme remains photography’s ability to depict things while fostering conceptual narratives that can be experienced by means of perception.
How do we understand surfaces and space? How do we consciously negotiate these complex conditions? The visible, lines, colors, shapes and structures also express peoples’ relationships to their immediate surroundings and living conditions. The photographs open up these spaces, making them navigable.

Der Beitrag Open Equations erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

La Ligne claire / Die Helle Linie

Robert Schlotter — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 22:07:43 +0000

Commissioned by the Land of Sarre (Saarland, Germany) and the Department of Moselle, La Ligne claire / Die Helle Linie by Guillaume Greff aims to question the regional architectural signs and traces of the period of reconstruction after the Second World War — Franco-German history expressed in space and architecture. Being local to this region,… Continue reading La Ligne claire / Die Helle Linie

Der Beitrag La Ligne claire / Die Helle Linie erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

LA BARRICADE – Poster

Robert Schlotter — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 17:59:39 +0000

The poster edition LA BARRICADE – Poster by Luise Schröder relates to her latest work La Barricade – Existing as a Promise — a documentary and conceptual artistic project that explores the pictorial and photographic myth of barricades in Paris and France over the centuries.

Der Beitrag LA BARRICADE – Poster erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

Paris, 8 Dec 2018 — La Ville Lumière

Robert Schlotter — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 19:49:17 +0000

“Oliver Sieber and Katja Stuke […] are not permanent fixtures in this society: however, as resident artists at the Cité internationale des arts, they were confronted with the first “acts” of the yellow vest movement. In this sense, they are distanced observers and do not take sides, although they are not indifferent: they observe how the conflict writes itself into the city’s narrative. Their route follows and intersects with that of the actors involved that day, leading them along Rue de Rivoli, past the Louvre to La Madeleine, on to Gare Saint-Lazare, past the Métro Liège to the Galleries Lafayette, along Boulevard Haussmann to Place de la République, and at night back to the Bastille and the Cité des arts. Their perspectives keep shifting between the side of the road and the middle of the street, locating the actors—in the midst of all the activity on the street—in relation to the setting, recording the lesser defilements as well as the greater devastation, individual passersby being checked by plainclothes police officers and the wholesale deployment of the security forces. Their 113 photographs depict nothing more and nothing less than six hours of a day of protest, one act in this social drama, one more dies irae for French society, of which there have been an abundance recently, from the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks to the general strike and the demonstrations against police brutality. They capture the visible configurations of a social protest, whose political rhetoric remains unclear, and are thus equally eloquent as an account of the social fault lines within society. […]” — Florian Ebner

Der Beitrag Paris, 8 Dec 2018 — La Ville Lumière erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

de Parel-ketting

Robert Schlotter — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 13:19:36 +0000

The name De Parel (The Pearl, La Perle, Die Perle, La Perla, Den Perlen, …), although indicating a precious possession, is a common name given to commercial businesses. Travelling around the Netherlands and Belgium, Liesbet Bussche photographed 28 businesses called De Parel. Her route is a necklace with pearls strung together via motorways. De Parel-ketting is a three meters long concertina, similar to the well-known souvenir for tourists; an accordion of postcards, a necklace of pearls.

Der Beitrag de Parel-ketting erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

The forgotten mobilization

Robert Schlotter — Fri, 27 Mar 2020 13:20:08 +0000

The forgotten mobilization is dealing with the relationship between historiography, gender and urban space using the example of Lutherstadt Wittenberg using different media. The artist deals with alternative narratives within the existing historiography and the utopian potential which can be applied to them. On the basis of a fictitious historical scenario The general strike of women of Wittenberg on 4 May 1987 Luise Schröder asks “what could have happened”. On one hand, the memorial plaque designed for public space recalls this fictitious historical event, while simultaneously discussing the conditions of historiography and historical narratives. The typeface design Friedlaender especially designed for the plaque by Reymund Schröder, is a homage to the Jewish font designer Elisabeth Friedländer, who worked in Germany in the 1930s. The double-sided poster provides information on the reasons and the course of the strike. As installation The forgotten mobilization is supplemented by a video that presents suggestions by citizens of Wittenberg to the question which women of Wittenberg should be mentioned on possible memorial plaques in the city. This public survey was carried out by the artist in the run-up to this work.

Der Beitrag The forgotten mobilization erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

In Belief Is Power

Robert Schlotter — Fri, 03 May 2019 12:05:05 +0000

Being a Bulgarian immigrant in Western Europe, I know how important the welcoming and friendly attitude of the local people is for the newcomers. How great my indignation was when Bulgaria, my home country, the place of origin for two million emigrants, tolerated nationalist groups to hunt down Muslim refugees who were illegally crossing E.U.’s external border with Turkey.

The articles in the Western media informing about the activities of the Bulgarian nationalists raised a lot of questions for me. I am trying to express these with the present project: what provokes one’s fear of foreigners; what is the life and history of the local population who live near the border, where different political interests intersect; what is the “Bulgarian” identity exactly made up of; how does the border region reflect what is happening across Europe; is there a “beautiful” nationalism that would help a vanishing nation preserve itself (Bulgaria is said to be the fastest disappearing nation in the world); and, finally, what connects us as people?

The title of the book is borrowed from an inscription from a small chapel in the border area, built in honor of St. Marina: “In faith is power”. I have changed it to “In belief is power” in order to address the relationship of belief not only with religion, but also with different political and economic systems, as well as the consequences of these relationships.

Der Beitrag In Belief Is Power erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.