Objects

Piece commissioned for the exhibition 'Void', 2012 in Nowy Sącz, on the topic of vanished multi-culturality in West Galicia, Poland, curated by Anda Rottenberg.

The starting material for the three-part work 'Holy Bond' (braided image made of etched stainless steel strips, riveted stainless steel plates, video) were old photo lead clichés found in the archive of the former minority of Galician Germans in the Martin Opitz library in Herne.

The title of their newspaper 'Das Heilige Band' (Holy Bond) was used as well as the aesthetics of the old lead clichés, which offered a top-sided, almost faded view of the world, a ghost image from the past. In a multi-stage reproduction process these clichés, including old paint buildup and impurities, were used to etch into stainless steel. Each reproduction step made the motifs more blurred and fuzzy - just like memories that become over time and with each re-telling more and more removed from their actual subject. The pale etchings were intertwined with a fragmented panorama of today's Nowy Sącz.