Homage to...

Abstract - Participants - Visitors - Theory I - Theory II

When presenting this project at Kunst in Sendling 2006 for the first time participants were (with the person rendered homage to in parenthesis): Andreas P. Schulz (Otto Dreßler), Barbara Keil (Maria Weiß), Elena Ilina (Friedrich Hölderlin), Hermann Posch (Emanuel Swedenborg), James Blackforest (Robert Lax), Karin Ulrike Soika (Shirley Horn), Kurt Huber (Ovid), Sophie Rank (José de Ribera und die Epoche der Romanik), Wolfgang End (Van Gogh), Wolfgang Z. Keller (Joseph Beuys)

Hommage an... Otto Dreßler

Andreas P. Schulz, Munich, Germany

Making History - my funny barricade game

Each time old and new Nazis demonstratively creep out of their holes again, the official big-heads call upon a decided opposition not to tolerate the brown spook. Each time my children take these calls very seriously and follow the democratically elected politicians by the word.
Each time they get oppressed, compelled, pursued and are injured.
Each time, and not through Nazis, but rather through policemen of our free pretty-weather democracy.
So in very short time my children mutate from engaged youths to cynic adults.
When asking the question: "how to protect my children?" the alienation artist Otto Dressler came into my mind, who put his entire art to the service of humankind and a fruitful memory, putting his fingers into open wounds and thus contributing to the healing of our society. The persistent effect of his actions and installations moved and encouraged me. I built the box out of the remnants of the children's room; I bought the fittings in one of the so widely popular construction markets in this country; the large-head stones however are from a construction site enlarging a Munich party service: apparently the big-heads here have always something to celebrate.

Hommage an... Maria Weiß

Barbara Keil, Wolfratshausen/Munich, Germany

Regarding Maria Weiß I appreciate her positive mind-set in her very difficult life. She said: "It is how it is, and thus..." This moves me positively in my life.

Hommage an... Friedrich Hölderlin

Elena Ilina, Munich, Germany

Through Hölderlin I learned for the first time about the - for me at that point (I was 18 years old) shocking truth regarding the ambivalence of life. His second message was that one can make something beautiful out of that, and third: the price for doing so can be rather high. It was about life, not about art.

This installation was originally planned to use alienated waste from the cemetery at Harras [Munich, an area close to the exhibition site], but was neither completed nor executed. But it is just this condition between not-entirely-born and not-finally-dead that mirrors the subtle perception of those moments in which we become aware of the ambivalence of our experiences and the insufficiency of our thinking..

It can be a long way to that point where poetry becomes visible or noticeable. It is like a letter of Diotima, a long awaited answer to innumerable attempts.

Hommage an... Emanuel Swedenborg

Hermann Posch, Munich, Germany

Hommage an... Robert Lax

James Blackforest, Puchheim/Munich, Germany, Web

I admire Robert Lax because he brought simplicity on the point.

Hommage an... Shirley Horn

Karin Ulrike Soika, Munich, Germany, www.soika.com

We won't forget you!

Nights. It is the music of Shirley Horn that always brings the nights back to me: New York nights. Rainy nights. Velvet nights.
It was in New York that I first discovered Shirley Horn's music, she, who I admire for her courage to confront her feelings. And, if it once things did not work out: to accept her defeats with pride. For it was in New York I also ran against walls. There are things that I never reached.

Hommage an... Ovid

Kurt Huber, Munich, Germany

Ovid is a wonderful source of inspiration for me. His poetic and visual language fascinates me over and over again.

Hommage an... José de Ribera und die Epoche der Romanik

Sophie Rank, Munich, Germany, www.sophierank.de

The Romanesque epoch fascinates me because of the imaginativeness in the representation of the human being, often connecting it to the animals and/or fable world, just as well as its serial repetition. The lying, falling, thrown persons José Riberas painted in their essence led in the sign I work on since years.

Hommage an... Van Gogh

Wolfgang End, Puchheim/Munich, Germany, www.wolfgang-end.de

I admire van Gogh because he preferred simple people and daily subjects.

Hommage an... Joseph Beuys

Wolfgang Z. Keller, Munich, Germany, www.wolfgang-z-keller.de

Dear Karin

1. I call my Homage to Beuys: "Joseph, dearest Joseph mine, help me carry my children!"
2. Shortly after I had decided to work as an artist, in the beginning of 1994, I read about a comprehensive Beuys retrospective in Zurich. I had heard about him in the past and in 1972, at the Documenta, during his 100-day-discussion I also had the occasion to speak with him for couple of minutes.. Now I wanted to finally see what he had "made". After a hour in the Zurich museum I said with the harmless naiveté of a beginner to my friends: "But that guy is doing the same stuff as I do!"
3. In these past days - in order to prepare my work for Homage to... - I once again took Heiner Stachelhaus' book on Beuys to hand. And I almost want to give up hope in despair regarding the enormous intensity and theoretical power, that marked Joseph B.'s art. And yet: I still sense those elements of internal vicinity and solidarity. The only things that may help: humility, self-confidence and asking for assistance...