| | | |  | | | Matthias Schaller
Lorenzo L, 2010-2018
pigment print with artist frame
130 x 100 cm
© Matthias Schaller, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn | | | | | | Leiermann | | | | 11 February – 26 March 2022 | | | | Opening: Friday, 11 February, 10am-6:30pm | | |  | | | | | | | | | |  | | | Matthias Schaller
Antonio V, 2010-2018
pigment print with artist frame
130 x 100 cm
© Matthias Schaller, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn | | | | | | BECK & EGGELING is presenting the exhibition "Leiermann" (Organ-Grinder) with the series of the same name by photo artist Matthias Schaller. Parallel to the exhibition, the NRW-Forum of the Museum Kunstpalast is showing "Portrait", a wide-ranging overview of Matthias Schaller's photo-series.
Magnificent mirrors, reflecting parts of the interior, characterize the image subject of Matthias Schaller's photographic series "Leiermann". These mirrors, however, have long since passed their heyday. They still hang in Venetian palazzi with a worn patina, cracks and traces of decay.
One looks in vain for the presence of man in these photographs. No one's reflection can be seen, and the rooms in which the mirrors hang seem abandoned. This is the leitmotif of Matthias Schaller's artistic strategy and poetics: the absence of the human subject. The significance of the mirror as a testimony to disappearance and memory has a special role to play here. | | | | | |  | | | Matthias Schaller
Orlando DL, 2010-2018
pigment print with artist frame
130 x 100 cm
© Matthias Schaller, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn | | | | | | In the series "Leiermann", Matthias Schaller alludes to the decline of Venice, whose heyday in the 17th and 18th centuries was characterized by wealth and the Arts were highly valued and promoted. During this period, a culture emerged whose legacy is still relevant to us today, but which came to an end with the founding of the Republic of Italy under Napoleon. The art of mirror manufacturing on the Venetian island of Murano was in demand beyond the country's borders and enjoyed a certain monopoly. The complex and costly process of making mirrors from a compound of polished glass and sheets of tin and mercury was a protected secret and the pride of the city of Venice. The mirrors are still a reminder of this glamorous period and its grandiose personalities, but also show abrupt collapse and decay.
The title of the series is taken from Franz Schubert's "Winterreise", more precisely from the last song of the cycle "Leiermann". Matthias Schaller has transferred the interpretation of Schubert's music - pain, grief and loss - into the visual. Anyone who knows Schubert's »Leiermann« and has the melancholy of this song in their head, can feel the pain of the loss of Venice when looking at the photographs. The ghostly and decayed character of the mirrors as well as the absence of the human individual heighten this canon. The artist, who himself lived in Venice for many years and for whom the loss of culture is accompanied by a loss of the city, plays with the two genres of art and captures their proximity to each other.
An artist's book with a text by Mario Codognato has been published in 2019 by the artist's own publishing house Petrus Books to accompany the series "Leiermann".
In addition, Beck & Eggeling will be showing a set from Matthias Schaller's "DISPORTRAIT" series in its showroom, excerpts of which can also be seen in large format in the NRW-Forum of the Kunstpalast. | | | | | |  | | | Matthias Schaller
Francesco G, 2010-2018
pigment print with artist frame
130 x 100 cm
© Matthias Schaller, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn | | | | | | unsubscribe here
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© 3 Feb 2022 photo-index UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
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