Preface: Gue SCHMIDT (MAG3)
To the works: Frank BAAKE, M.A. (Director Rhein Sieg Forum Siegburg, GERMANY)
Duration: 05.03.- 31.03.2022
Opening Hours: Tues. - Fri., 4:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.
The works submitted focus on the view on man in the 21st century. In order to show the human being, Leyendecker chooses a radical perspective, namely the perspective of someone who does not know more of the obvious than he can directly perceive: its surface. It might be the view from a distant future which unveils the remains of our time or the view from a distant space; of a different species.
This effect is achieved by using laser technology as a photographic procedure. It emphasizes the surface in a radical way while simultaneously concealing the background. These surfaces seem to be petrified or even mummified, superficial and reified. This, however, epitomizes Leyendeckers critical prognosis for mankind in the 21st century, dwindling in a world where people have been alienated from each other not really knowing anything from each other anymore.
But Leyendecker does not leave it at that. The human surface, mummified like this, is revealed to be delicate and fragile at the same time. Man as a thing has infinite complexity, so that even this reifying view on man, which does neither know nor see anything of his inner life, can nevertheless identify more than a surface. Man as a free being seems to break through its "objektification".
This is how these works convey optimism despite all their sinister sides
Frank BAAKE M.A
projektroomMAG3
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