"Ich bin was Du vergessen hast"
A cycle of twelve palimpsests created in Berlin in 2015. The work is entirely made of materials found in Berlin, mainly from scraps of posters and ephemera. Each work is a complete composition, over which is laid a second composition of worn, white material to reveal some things and conceal others.
The work mimics the incomplete images one encounters in ancient frescoes, where layers of plaster over time have covered it and crumbled off again. An archaeologist or conservator sometimes fills in the missing or eroded gaps with clean plaster or tries to reveal as many bits of the story as they can, sometimes relying on guesswork about what the story may have been. Part of the excitement and enchantment is that of the unopened present - knowing there is more underneath which is not visible.
The narrative as the titles suggest is likewise incomplete, as an ancient story or myth recounting events that were once well known but are no longer, and only fragments are available to us now. We do the best we can to construct a story and a meaning from what is still left for us to see. The titles of the work are as bits of an old scroll still intact, so that we have some lines to work with, but also some missing chapters.
Berlin itself is a palimpsest, where the images and papers pile up in layers and fall away, so that the city's story returns to itself in bits and pieces. These works are meant as a fiction that contains the archaeology of the future. We know there are three main characters at least, and we know a few of the events that occur in the story if not all the details . . . the pleasure then is to spend time exploring what bits of the puzzle are still there for us.
The work mimics the incomplete images one encounters in ancient frescoes, where layers of plaster over time have covered it and crumbled off again. An archaeologist or conservator sometimes fills in the missing or eroded gaps with clean plaster or tries to reveal as many bits of the story as they can, sometimes relying on guesswork about what the story may have been. Part of the excitement and enchantment is that of the unopened present - knowing there is more underneath which is not visible.
The narrative as the titles suggest is likewise incomplete, as an ancient story or myth recounting events that were once well known but are no longer, and only fragments are available to us now. We do the best we can to construct a story and a meaning from what is still left for us to see. The titles of the work are as bits of an old scroll still intact, so that we have some lines to work with, but also some missing chapters.
Berlin itself is a palimpsest, where the images and papers pile up in layers and fall away, so that the city's story returns to itself in bits and pieces. These works are meant as a fiction that contains the archaeology of the future. We know there are three main characters at least, and we know a few of the events that occur in the story if not all the details . . . the pleasure then is to spend time exploring what bits of the puzzle are still there for us.