Artist Statement
The central theme in my work (photography, video-installation) is the contemplation of landscapes, places and their historical, mythological and present layers. A kind of visual archaeology in which I reveal these different layers that overlap and sometimes collide with social, political and ecological realities. The images are in a state of limbo, between past and present, reality and imagination. In this way, the image also becomes a projection space and often appears like a stage or film set.
In general these are research based long-term projects and after a phase of intensive research I travel to the locations in question to create images. In recent projects the researched archive material became also part of my works.
Recent Projects
A PHANTOM GEOGRAPHY. Cameroon and Congo
Book, hardcover 23×30.5 cm. 256 pages. 85 contemporary photographs and video stills, 72 historical images and research material. With contributions by Elisabetta Corrà, Gérard Essomba, David Van Reybrouck, Benedikt Stuchtey, Albert Pascal Temgoua, Éric Vuillard. English & German. Design by Carsten Eisfeld. The publication was supported by the visual arts presentation grant of the Berlin Cultural Senate. Spector Books 2024
Based on the photographs and writings of his great-grandfather, photographer and video artist Andréas Lang embarks on a search for traces and an investigation into a lost chapter of German colonial history in Central Africa: a frontier expedition to take possession of the French Congo. His photographs and videos depict places and landscapes in which the phantoms of the colonial era are still present, in a state of limbo between reality and fiction, past and present. He juxtaposes this with previously unpublished historical material that reflects the unvarnished reality of colonialism.
There is also a signed and numbered special edition available, limited to 100 copies including a 24x30cm archival pigment print of “Viewpoint”. Some copies are still available, please contact me if you are interested.
Events and media coverage:
TAZ newspaper, book review taz.de
Humboldt Forum. 13 november 2024, 17h, book launch and artist talk with Andréas Lang, Dr. Verena Rodatus, Drossilia D. Igouwe, Gitti Salami. humboldtforum.org
Titel, Thesen, Temperamente, tv feature and interview. daserste.de
DLF Kultur, radio interview with Shelly Kupferberg. deutschlandfunkkultur.de
BROKEN MEMORIES
Book, hardcover 22,5 × 22,5 cm. 192 pages. 71 colour and 17 black&white photographs. Contributions by Refik Akyüz & Serdar Darendeliler (GAPO), Aylin Vartanyan Dilaver. English, Turkish, Armenian. Design by Christine Gedeon. The publication is funded by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Kerber Verlag 2023
The book, as the exhibition, is the result of several years of artistic research on memory politics and history in Turkey. This started in 2018 with my stipend and artist residency at Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul. In photographs and video-installations I reflect on the disappearance, discontinuity and the multiple layers of historical writings as well as the overwriting, that leaves visible traces of a collective memory long since rendered invisible. I focus on the contemporary approach to history, but especially on places with links to the later Ottoman Empire, the Armenian heritage and the 1915 genocide.
There is also a signed and numbered special edition available, limited to 100 copies including a 24x30cm archival pigment print of “Akthamar Rainbow”. Some copies are still available, please contact me if you are interested.
Events:
New Babylon, Dubai 2020 (video-installation still, 41:24 min, loop, sound, 112.40 × 200 cm)
RE-VISITING ORIENTALISM
In this project I approach the various projections and problematics of Orientalism by overlaying historical Orientalist paintings in video-installations with contemporary sceneries and video-sequences, thus opening up a field of interpretation and hinting at geopolitical, ecological and social problems as well as political realities. The work becomes a subversive deconstruction of the Western Orientalist perspective by using its aesthetics and creating a palimpsest of the now and the Orientalist imaginary. During my research, I travelled to Istanbul, Arabian Peninsula, Caucasus, Tunesia and Central Asia. The project was initiated in 2019 with the support of Goethe Institute. It is a work in progress, and further destinations are planned for the completion of the theme.
ECLIPSE
Book, hardcover 30x29cm. 144 pages, 70 photographs. Contributions by Hans-Michael Koetzle, Stefan Weidner, Frizzi Krella. German, English. Design by Horst Moser. Hatje Cantz edition, 2019
In this work I photographed historical places in Turkey, Syria, Israel, Palestinian-Westbank and Egypt. Places that have visible or invisible traces about conflict and religious worship, that are connected to the medieval Crusades and early Christianity. The ambivalence of a so-called Holy Land. The title Eclipse stands symbolically for an obscuration as well as for an astronomic phenomena and apocalyptical portend.
There is also a signed and numbered special edition available, limited to 100 copies including a 24x30cm archival pigment print of “Megiddo”. Some copies are still available, please contact me directly if you are interested.
Some preview pages of the book here.