Tacita Dean
30 Sep 2005 - 15 Jan 2006
Tacita Dean, The Russian Ending, 2001
Exhibition in the Eberhard-Roters-Saal
Tacita Dean, born in 1965 in Canterbury (GB), studied art from 1985 to 1992. In the recent years she has been increasingly recognized in widening circles both in Europe and America for her cinematic work. In 1998 she was nominated for the Turner Prize, one of the most important European art prizes, moreover she was awarded by the Kunst Preis (Art Prize) Aachen. For several years the artist has been living and working in Berlin and London.
The 20 photogravures of the map “The Russian Ending”, based on old photo-postcards, show battlefields of the Crimea- and the First World War, sinking ships, collapsed bridges, burials and other catastrophes, mishaps and bereavements of the early 20th century. In these pictures, Tacita Dean noted minor stage directions. These interventions change the historical photographs of real places and events into actual frameworks, each one standing for the last scene of an imaginary film. The conceptual relation between picture and word dissolves the connection between photography and film, past and present, fact and fiction, making visible the interaction between the different medias and time, between documentation and fiction.
The Russian Ending: The title for the series of twenty works of art takes up a term from the early history of silent film. At that time, two versions of west European films were being made: In contrast to the positive ending produced for the American market, the opposite version was filmed for the Russian market which always ended tragically.
© Tacita Dean, The Story of Minke the Wale, 2001
Number 13 out of the portfolio „The Russian Ending“
Exhibition in the Eberhard-Roters-Saal
Tacita Dean, born in 1965 in Canterbury (GB), studied art from 1985 to 1992. In the recent years she has been increasingly recognized in widening circles both in Europe and America for her cinematic work. In 1998 she was nominated for the Turner Prize, one of the most important European art prizes, moreover she was awarded by the Kunst Preis (Art Prize) Aachen. For several years the artist has been living and working in Berlin and London.
The 20 photogravures of the map “The Russian Ending”, based on old photo-postcards, show battlefields of the Crimea- and the First World War, sinking ships, collapsed bridges, burials and other catastrophes, mishaps and bereavements of the early 20th century. In these pictures, Tacita Dean noted minor stage directions. These interventions change the historical photographs of real places and events into actual frameworks, each one standing for the last scene of an imaginary film. The conceptual relation between picture and word dissolves the connection between photography and film, past and present, fact and fiction, making visible the interaction between the different medias and time, between documentation and fiction.
The Russian Ending: The title for the series of twenty works of art takes up a term from the early history of silent film. At that time, two versions of west European films were being made: In contrast to the positive ending produced for the American market, the opposite version was filmed for the Russian market which always ended tragically.
© Tacita Dean, The Story of Minke the Wale, 2001
Number 13 out of the portfolio „The Russian Ending“