 Part
IV_Borrowed Images
Works in the Exhibition | Interview
Markus Selg: Diamantenräuber, 1999
Photo: courtesy Goetz Collection
Works in the Exhibition
Alte Kralle, 2001, digital print
Gute Holzaugenseele, 2000, digital print
Himmel (Untergang), 2005, digital print on canvas
Diamantenräuber, 1999, Inkjetprint on paper on canvas
Interview
Karsten Löckemann: In her essay On the Natures of Markus Selg(1) Lina Launhardt quotes a demand made by Russian art critic Anatoli Lunacharsky(2) that history should not just be reflected in works of art, but also be intensified with "maximum affective and expressive power". Could that idea serve as a motto for your work?
Markus Selg: Yes it could. The world must inscribe itself in the works. History, the past and the present, must be intensified in them. As in an ECG, works of art must be hooked up to the world. I like the idea of an image, similar to the portrait in The Picture of Dorian Gray,(3) that has life burned into it and makes visible every pleasure and every crime. And I like the idea that you see your entire life in the moment of death, before the end comes with a blazing light. That's the kind of density and intensity needed to infuse life into a work of art. If you don't achieve it, you're not helping anyone. Then the work of art is more like a vampire biting a corpse - it can be poisonous.
(1) Lina Launhardt, "Über die Wesen von Markus Selg", in Amnesia, exh. cat., Maschenmode Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin 2004, p. 4.
(2) AAnatoli Vasiljevich Lunacharsky (1875-1933), who became People’s Commissar for Education after the Russian Revolution, ranks among the most important Marxist politicians involved in cultural and educational affairs.
(3) Novel by Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), published in 1891.
Text excerpt »Breaking new ground« - A Conversation with Markus Selg, Berlin, March 2006 (Author: Karsten Löckemann), Exhibition Catalogue Imagination Becomes Reality Part IV_Borrowed Images
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