Thanks, very much, and - sorry I have nothing to contribute. Really, I can't even remember that I have ever heard the name. I am not a visual type, and I have nearly no art education. But I liked my last ARTS teacher :-). The sentence about the small format was known to me. Maybe once cited by the beloved teacher. And, hey, I have been at documenta several times (less than an hours drive, and lots of fun in the city parks).
Mr Saltz quite precisely caught a feeling typical of the German scene in, at least, the eighties. The Germans, insecure about their identity, bewildered about their past, tend to turn to the land. In inspection of what they feel their home, they will find spiritual reconciliation, projecting its' (hopefully) peaceful looks with a gain factor into mythical and psychological dimensions, standing gasping at sheer 'natural' beauty or meticulously following visible wounds and scars, linking them to their cause in history, or more prosaically in economics. That's provincial Heimat feeling.
It is true for me also. Beware.
But, apart from that, you have lots of Heimat topic in eighties German (popular) culture products. E.g. the legendary '4630 Bochum' album by singer Herbert Groenemeyer, or 'Heimat' TV multipart half-documentary.
Tales of lost land can be revisionist political statements, or parabolae of innocence lost, or of the wounds humans inflict on each other in the course of history. Or simply banal nostalgia. Depends on the maker. (Compare Grass, of course!)
I cannot judge of course regarding Kieffer which one is most likely for him, as I know neither the man nor his works. But even after eyeing any exhibition I wouldn't dare judging, as one unproficient in the context of visual arts.
OTOH as I remember from the documenta installations' catalogue comments, it may be a case of "Depends on the viewer", anyway. Then I am out even the more.
Regards, MNI.
Ah, I see, wouldn't you say Saltz has used wrong double negation in his third but last paragraph? Or is that free in the American English nowadays? |
