The exhibition world tour
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The
now 17-years old cycle by Guenther Schaefer draws a visual line from November
1989 starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall until today, showing the
development of this metropolis with all its aspects and all its
“phenomena“ that this exiting part of history produced within
this city. G. Schaefer’s work shows Berlin as a vivid symbol for the
breakdown of the „Iron Curtain“, the border of two systems, the
fall of the “Border of the World“ in a way were humans or the
traces they leave are always in the centre of creative intention. As regards
content, mayor events take turn with more quiet topics of no less importance.
Philosophical point of view, aesthetic angles of vision, historical
connections, and political aspects complement one another in the choice of
pictures. One credo of the artist goes: “He who takes black and white
pictures has to nail his colours to the mast,“ a form of expression
that reduces the picture’s content to the essential. Another
photographic stylistic device is the creation of series. Through many years
of documenting heavily symbolic places and world-historic focal points of
attention in this city the development of the metropolis becomes urgently
clear while the documentation turns against “collective
oblivion.“ Furthermore, the work intends to preserve one intense piece
of history in an artistically aesthetic way and asks for a dialogue with the
viewer in a compository imagery language without transfiguring. |
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The complete exhibition
work includes around 250 photos (chosen out of 50.000 negatives on this
topic). It will be published as a
book in the near future supplemented by texts and comments of many
personalities of contemporary history. In the past decade, phases of this project
were to be seen in numerous, highly acclaimed international expositions (see
biography.) The visitor’s reactions to those presentations were
extremely positive and the public’s identification with the presented
themes was surprisingly intense, especially abroad. The opening of the
exhibition in the Venezuelan Embassy in Potsdam on November 9 2001 was the
starting point to an exhibition tour through all continents. From September
until November 2004 it was seen in the Hungarian Embassy in Berlin, followed
2005 by two exhibitions in the Netherlands and a big presentation in Potsdam
again. 2006 / 2007 will follow shows in various East European countries. The
touring plan, putting East European countries in the beginning, is chosen on
purpose. It is a reference to the struggle for freedom of these countries
which made the fall of the Berlin Wall only just possible at this point in
time. From 2007 on, the exhibition will leave the European continent for
several years in order to present this intense period of world history from a German point of view
in a global tour. Depending on the exhibition forum it is possible to alter
the work’s presentation. The number of photo-graphs can vary from 60 to
250 without essentially changing the dramaturgy of the whole concept. Because
the artist manages this global tour himself he is flexible in choosing places for exhibitions as well as the forum
for a presentation. He is always interested in new suggestions and offers.
The realization and financing of the
whole concept is primary ensured through sponsoring. Highlights from the
complete work was already present in exhibitions in: The aim: A never ending
tour ! |
Opening
address through the former Hungarian Prime Minister Miklós Neméth |
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2005, Gallery
Onyva, Maastricht /
Netherlands Enlarged photo,
size 3,0 by 2,0 meters on canvas. ( 120 by 80
Inches ) Five motives
available. |
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The main motivation for G. Schaefer’s activities is to preserve a
consciousness for the highest global good worthy of protection which is
democracy by delivering picture contents that
are always based on a liberal humanistic idea. Not only since the catastrophe
on September 11 is this one of the greatest challenges of the free world in
the 21 Century. Facing pictures of hollering neo-nazis at the Brandenburg
Gate and recently even in the Scheunenviertel in Berlin (a district of Berlin
that is traditionally influenced by a Jewish community) it is more than
necessary to show the world documents that prove Germany’s and
especially Berlin’s readiness to protect the basic concepts of freedom
and democracy wherever it may be in peril. May this work be a modest
contribution to this and may it serve as an example that also the individual
according to his or her personal possibilities is able to make a difference,
as long as they do something.
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2001, November 9. Embassy
of Venezuela / Potsdam. From left to
right: Mayor of the district Friedrichshain H. Mendiburu, (3. left) patronage I. Beetz President
of the consuls of economy, L. Leal-Leon Attaché of cultural affairs of
Venezuela, the artist G. Schaefer, His Excellency Dr. Erik
Becker-Becker Ambassador of Venezuela during the opening address of the
exhibition. |
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September
2000, Show in the “Fotogalerie Berlin“ (In the past decade was the gallery the second biggest photo forum in
Germany) |
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Avalaible: Three
transport boxes created by
the artist. For seventy
pictures in the size
50 by 60
centimetres. ( 19,4 by
23,4 Inches ) framed in
aluminium frames and
passepar- touts. Size of
the Boxes: W 97 x H
73 X D 60 cm. W 38,5 x H
28,5 x D 23,5 Inches. |
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Schaefer achieved international fame in 1990 with
his Berlin Wall-painting “Vaterland“ (Fatherland) which today is
protected as a historical monument. The painting is a combination of the
German and Israeli flags, 11 meters long and 3.5-meter tall, a symbol for
peace and a memorial against any kind of fanaticism. It is a work that
relates to November 9th in two ways: First, November 9, 1938, the day of the
pogrom, the so-called “Kristallnacht“ (Crystal night); secondly,
November 9th 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall. “Vaterland“
(“Fatherland”) is the most provocative contribution to the East
Side Gallery, the last part of the Wall still standing. Since 1990, this
painting has been destroyed 44 times by variously motivated fanatics. The
artist keeps on answering these acts by renovating it, a form of non-violent
resistance. In 1996 he became a co-founder of the artists’ initiative
East Side Gallery e. V. As a member of the board he fights for the
preservation of the unique decaying monument of German separation, which at
the same time is the largest open-air gallery of the world. Since 1985, he
has exhibited his works in more than 150 national and international art
actions, group and single exhibitions. Since 1992, he has been a resident of
Berlin-Friedrichshain. In 2000, he was nominated a Berlin-Ambassador whose
duty isto act as a representative of the citizens of Berlin with the
diplomatic corps. In September 2004 the exhibition world-tour of the
photo project: Berlin – “Pictures from two millennia“ commenced
in the embassy of Hungary in Berlin with ceremonial opening addresses by the
former Federal Chancellor of Germany Dr. Helmut Kohl and Miklós Neméth, the
former Prime Minister of Hungary. Guest of honour at this ceremony was the
Federal President of Germany Horst Köhler.
1999 November 4, Goethe-Institute Beirut / Lebanon. Professor Bassam
Lahoud, American - Lebanese University
/ Beirut. Dr. Monika von Krafft - director of the institute. Circulate through the
exhibition with his students. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ |
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