In September 2009 I visited a photo exhibition with works of Thomas Demand in MUMOK in Vienna. I saw two series called 'Presidency' and 'Embassy'
The photos were showed at the MUMOK Factory in the basement of the Museum of Modern Art in Vienna. A small report at the news made me curios and so I paid a visit there.
Thomas Demand which was born 1964 in Munich was represented with two series of large-format photos called 'Presidency' (2008) and 'Embassy (2007).
'Presidency' showed photos of the oval office in Washington probably one of the most famous theatres regarding power. 'Embassy' gave views of the Nigerian embassy in Rome.
Well, on the one hand two very different places of power. The stylish oval office well known as set in many movies and the simple rooms of an African embassy probably no one of us has ever seen.
But both places were linked in a special way. It was the embassy of Nigeria in Rome where stationery and stamps disappeared after a burglary in 2001.
Later it there was a rumour exactly this material was used to fake proofs of a supposed operation to smuggle uranium into Iraq. Which was later a reason to start war with the Iraq.
So both places played a role in American history. But what about the photos? The artist worked very tricky. On the first view I was the opinion to see the real rooms of the president and the ambassador.
The wood of the furniture looked genuine, the carpet colourful. The American Eagle showed the importance of the office but why was the pencil at the desk so simple?
A sharper view gave me the answer. The photos were not taken at the original places. Thomas Demand had made paper models of the offices and took photos from these ones!
A very strange idea to build a model of a room and take photos from it instead of taking photos in the room itself, isn't it? But Thomas Demand made big efforts to implement his idea.
So were even the printer and the coffee cups on the photos of the Nigerian Embassy made of paper. Only the lack of any signs on the books and documents were a visible difference to the reality.
After my visit I read a little bit in the biography of Thomas Demand and learned he used to destroy all the models after taking the photos.
His motives he take from the world of media. He choose a photo, build a model and take photos of the model. So he reproduce famous places as well as famous scenes we all know from papers.
I do hope I will have the time to go to Berlin the next months. Until January 2010 there are more photos taken by Thomas Demand showed in the Neue Nationalgalerie.
For me this was a very interesting photo exhibition as I got in touch with a new idea. I saw photos who showed me not the reality but showed me a model of reality.
And so I was pointed to an important fact: Be aware photos show probably more a model of reality than the reality itself.
More notes and links
Website of the Mumok
