Reading the Notes

Beim Lesen der Notizen

Photo/Text # 35

CR 169. Year 1974

Reading The Notes Photo T35 Jochen Gerz Cr 169 Web

Reading the notes, that could have been written somewhat later, he remembered the situation when the pictures were taken. It was as if his words on the torn-out page of a notebook were both, bridge and obstacle.

Photographs are comparable to language in that they are "reproductions from life" (Jochen Gerz). They are slices of real situations. But they are not what they show, they are just images on the surface, abstractions of reality. Thus, they become something like signs that play different roles, depending on who is watching and reading them. That is the foundation of Jochen Gerz's strategy for awakening our perception. He touches upon our own existence and feelings, shakes the linear thinking that hobbles woodenly from cliché to cliché.

Andreas Vowinkel 1992

Categories

Photo/Text

30 framed b+w photographs (one of them cut), 1 framed text (typed on paper), each 13,5 x 18,5 cm, sticker with handwritten text, dated and signed: 13/5/74 Jochen Gerz

The original text exists in a German and an English version.

Courtesy Galerie Baudoin Lebon, Paris
Archiv für Künstlernachlässe, Pullheim

Exhibitions

Karlsruhe 1975 (Duisburg 1975. Braunschweig 1976). Essen 2002

Bibliography

I: Lichtenberg 1976, pp. 12-27. Hannover 1978, p. 19. Essen 2002, pp. 46-47

Access general bibliography

My name is Jochen Gerz