Stanislaw Lem describes in his book Solaris from 1961 the strange, correspondent planet, which escapes the understanding of mankind. This masterpiece of science-fiction literature, the story of a world based solely on the author's fiction, has already been filmed several times, adapted for the stage, and has inspired numerous artists. Also stimulated by Solaris, Moritz Altmann explores in his new works the subject of the incomprehensible, the unprecedented, whose representation appears to him comparable to the search for the image of gods.
glazed ceramic, 39 h × Ø 22 cm, 161 h × 40 × 40 cm
glazed ceramic, 39 h × Ø 22 cm, 161 h × 40 × 40 cm
Without clarity about their existence and appearance, their own remembrance material, the possibilities of what is imaginable, are accessed, and so it is not surprising that most gods visually correspond to the physiognomic tradition of humans.
glazed ceramics, 69 h × Ø 29 cm, 180 × 40 × 40 cm
glazed ceramics, 69 h × Ø 29 cm, 180 × 40 × 40 cm
With the approach to form the fiction, Moritz Altmann works with plasticine, intuitively and with both hands at the same time. The symmetrical modeling defines the finished objects and makes them associative: from organic structures to masks and faces, much is recognizable in the many-color ceramics.
glazed ceramics, 33 × 20 × 10 cm
glazed creamics, 27 × 27 × 11.5 cm
Ultimately, the incomprehensible ends in an almost archaic form and its visualization remains captured within the own remembrance material.
glazed ceramics, 26 × 21 × 11 cm
glazed ceramics, 25 × 21 × 12 cm
While the Symmetriaden, so the title of the series described above, try to create a form which has not yet been comprehended, the work of the series Fragments retain the moments of deconstruction. The initial forms, which are a kind of tube systems or even lattice patterns, are modified and transformed in the artistic process into seemingly organic forms as well as objects which are attributed to a rather technoid aesthetic.
mixed media on paper and foil, sprayed object frame, 40.5 × 40.5 cm
mixed media on paper and foil, sprayed object frame, 40.5 × 40.5 cm
mixed media on paper and foil, sprayed object frame, 40.5 × 40.5 cm
mixed media on paper and foil, sprayed object frame, 40.5 × 40.5 cm
The self-evident nature of the execution of both works points to the familiar relationship between the artist and the medium and the material. At the beginning of his artistic career, the new works of Moritz Altmann unfold in a more abstract direction, which will be presented in the current exhibition.
Moritz Altmann, born in Marburg in 1975, lives and works in Munich. He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and at the College of Fine Arts in Hamburg. In 2010, he received the price Neue Kunst in Hamburg. In recent years, his works have been shown at the Herbert-Gerisch-Stiftung in Münster, in the Agathenburg Palace, and in the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig.