NOTA 2018 Haus am Lützowplatz Berlin
kin II
nota I
tentare (light weight concrete)
nota V
nota II+III
Ridges and Valleys
TENTARE 2018 Universität der Künste Berlin
faksimile I
nota-Studie I
tentare I-IV
TENTARE is a compilation of different photographs that thematically revolve around my attempt to develop a sense for stone as a material. "tentare" (lat.) means both "to feel" and "to try". The basis of these works is a type of paper, which is used in archaeology to decipher unearthed stone inscriptions. With the help of a special imprinting technique, I examine the qualities of different stony surfaces. But rather than focussing on the text, I prioritize the material itself as co-creator of the final image. At the end of the process, it is the paper which is photographed rather than the stone itself. It serves as a carrier for the traces that were revealed after contact with the stone. Finally the imprint is lit and photographed in my studio. In the context of tentare, I work with this paper in a variety of ways. It shrouds the surface of a stone as in faksimile I from 2013. Or it binds with the pigments and residue of old posters left on facades in the nota-studies from 2017. A third approach is to bring out hidden details by retrospectively adding black pigments to the paper (tentare I-IV, 2018). The work kin from 2015 is a kind of commentary on the subject of touch and the need to come in contact with materials, which is an essential part of being in the world. It is a 3D scan of my hand enhanced with special texture that I designed and added digitally. kin is inspired by the idea that materials have agency and the idea that we humans do not just alter a seemingly inanimate material, but that the material has a reciprocal effect and can also change us.tentare is thus an attempt to approach a material that appears to passively wait to be shaped by the human hand or to gain meaning through our intervention. How could one think of the material itself as an actor? The more I try to get to the bottom of this question and to explore the stones, the more they elude understanding. As Sara Ahmed says in her text “Willful Stones” from 2016, “Perhaps stones are willing inasmuch as what they do not let us do; in how they resist our intentions.”
kin I
FAC SIMILE 2018 Universität der Künste Berlin
fac simile VII
fac simile I + III
