Uwe Walther
dal 31/1/2013 al 25/4/2013
Segnalato da
31/1/2013
Uwe Walther
Ambassade de Suisse en France, Paris
1:25'000. Walther's map works can be seen perhaps as both a desire to bring himself closer to his adopted homeland, as well also pointing out the futility of ever really being able to fully comprehend one's fundamental place on the map.
MARCdePUECHREDON is delighted to announce the exhibition of Uwe Walther’s landscapes
at the Swiss Embassy in Paris starting this week. The exhibition comprises twenty
works from the series 1:25’000 with very large formats (200 x 200 cm) to smaller
works, including a set of prints which were produced for this exhibition.
Originally arriving in Switzerland from East Germany where he grew up, Walther, a
keen hiker, quickly discovered the beautifully detailed maps produced by the Federal
office of Swiss topography, which are legendary among enthusiasts, deemed works of
art in themselves through their level of detail in representations of settled areas,
hydrography, vegetation, terrain as well as differentiated rail, road and route
networks. For the artist looking into these maps, they represent both tangible and
imagined realities; the ability to see an entire canton topographically folded onto
one sheet and yet still requiring an unseen human element to make sense of the all
lines and marks. As the U.S. historian Crane Brinton remarked, "Neither the
historian nor the cartographer can ever reproduce the reality they are trying to
communicate to the reader of books or maps; they can but give a plan, a series of
indications, of this reality."
In some ways, Uwe picks up from this statement by intervening on these maps with his
own imagined reality, supplanting a regimentally correct and quasi-sacred document
with one in which placeless geography, confused perspectives and human trespassers
interrupt the established order. However these are far from chaotic creations, and
in some instances the artist's interventions seem to heighten the reality of the
maps through subtle and colourful illustrative techniques. Paradoxically, they only
become confusing when close inspection reveals familiar place-names and cartographic
symbols that have been suddenly rendered abstract by the artist's intervention; one
reality superseding another. These conflicting realities depicted by Uwe, ultimately
illicit human empathy both on a simple level for those who share a fascination for
maps, and on another for those who maybe recognise a strong sense of "hiareth"
contained within them.
For a German living in Switzerland since 1991, Uwe Walther's map works can be seen
perhaps as both a desire to bring himself closer to his adopted homeland, as well
also pointing out the futility of ever really being able to fully comprehend one's
fundamental place on the map.
"A map reminds us constantly of what is possible, of how much we have seen, and how
much we still have to see." (Mike Parker in "Map Addict").
Image: Panorama, part 1 (2011), 104 x 217 cm, Gouache on paper
Vernissage: Friday, 1 February, 2013, 18H30
PLEASE NOTE: Access to Vernissage is only via registering via phone +33 1 49 55 67 15
Ambassade de Suisse en France
142, rue de Grenelle, Paris, 7e - Paris
Viewing by announcing by phone +33 1 49 55 67 15 on
Monday to Friday from 9:00-12:00 and 14:00-17:00