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10/7/2008

Martin Fengel

Munchner Stadtmuseum - Sammlung Fotografie, Munich

Sammlung Fotografie

...there's that one maxim by Ludwig Wittgenstein, who wanted to bring all science back to the basics of philosophy; there are even quite a few maxims by Wittgenstein which are very appropriate to what Martin Fengel is doing. It is almost as if Fengel wanted to demonstrate what Wittgenstein meant. In Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, for example, Wittgenstein writes, "What can be shown cannot be said", referring primarily to language in its elementary form. He also says, "A sentence shows a logical form of reality. It emphasizes it."

Wittgenstein was referring to language (he was thinking about the grammar of the world in an age when images had not yet begun to play the key role in determining this grammar), and yet Martin Fengel's pictures work with the same model and the same rigour that Wittgenstein advocated. They show the logical form of reality and emphasize it; they are formulae, they are the keys to our understanding of what we see; they contain what could be termed the optical DNA of our world.

This clearly distinguishes them from almost all other photos and images in our age replete with images. Fengel's photos neither explain nor comment on what they show; they do not adopt a stance, show affection or criticism; they do not adhere to reality but float above it; nothing sticks to them, they are free from the past, they elude narration and refuse to pay homage to the story; yet they are setting a sign, just as they themselves are looking for signs. These pictures store optical codes which in turn can be combined to form something resembling reality.

Image: Bais, From the Series Guns, c prints 42 x 59.4 cm

Münchner Stadtmuseum
St.-Jakobs-Platz 1 . D-80331 Munich
Opening hours: Tues-Sun 10 am - 6 pm

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