2024-09-02 14:04:07
Famous artist Lars Eidinger paints pictures of things, people, situations. There is nothing to say against that. But are photographs art because they are now on display in a museum? Because your pictures are missing something important.
It’s too late, we only hear half of the press conference, but maybe that’s a good thing. “What?”, the famous actor Lars Eidinger, sitting in Crocs and a hoodie, asks the journalists and bloggers gathered at the Düsseldorf Ständehaus.
“What does the question about our society say about whether an artist is allowed to be photographed? Why do we define ourselves through works? What is this strange result of a favor? I don’t define myself by my work. Maybe tomorrow I will be something completely different. “
“Maybe tomorrow I’ll be something completely different.” With this sentence he is right in the middle of the exhibition “O Mensch” in Düsseldorf, in the middle of the phenomenon Lars Eidinger. In fact, no one has ever said that an artist is not allowed to take a photo (in view of the artistic freedom provided by the law, it will be difficult to enforce). But a few people, including at this press conference, are wondering why one of the most famous artists of the country – without having attended an art school or having been painting for a long time – has accepted a solo exhibition in one in Germany the most. famous museums.
From the stage to the museum
In addition to Lars Eidinger, Mike Kelley, Black American Titan from Detroit, long canonized and at home in museums around the world, currently exhibited in K21, the contemporary department of the North Rhine-Westphalia Art Collection. Yoko Ono will follow at the end of the month, followed by Katharina Sieverding in November. All top artists. And Eidinger, who appeared in “Tatort” and in the Berlin Schaubühne (he published his first photo book in 2020).
But it doesn’t matter who he is: If Lars Eidinger shows his pictures in this art museum and lets us show him as an artist, then these pictures on the wall will have to be seen and evaluated as image. This is what museums have taught their visitors to do for decades: take everything you see here seriously, they say! Because it is important for society, for you as a person.
This is exactly why the museum is such a historic and rich place today – it sets the framework that creates meaning in an illusory world. As a critic, this puts you in a tricky position. Because maybe Lars Eidinger really is a good artist and not just a celebrity who takes photos and is supposed to take guests. It can be.
As a critic, you cannot say “Art can do anything!” and then check the ticket. So they did with Lars Eidinger, like “FAZ” and “Süddeutsche” and other media, instead of introducing WELT to the brilliant artist who unfortunately does not appear in “Tatort”. And unfortunately it is not shown in K21.
Just PR? Lars Eidinger in K21
This inherent problem of criticism is great for the museum – PR, good word and many, many visitors are guaranteed with Lars Eidinger. Susanne Gaensheimer knows this, she heads the art collection of North Rhine-Westphalia, she invited Eidinger to cover half the floor and to DJ after the opening of the exhibition in the museum. In Eidinger’s paintings, Gaensheimer recognized “a great communication and sense of truth” as well as “a true sense of personal weakness.”
The announcement promises: “Through the many sculptures, the theme that emerges is the daily life in inner cities around the world that promises happiness and sadness.” About 150 photos from the past six years show the stars from public spaces: illegal barriers, equipment, shopping carts full of possessions, plants against concrete, the impotence of graphic, plain-clothes or patterned people.
There is a gentle, melancholic appeal to focus on the extraordinary but not threatening or truly eccentric deviation from the norm, which occurs in almost every reason, and it is easy to indulge. It is also in prints of the same size, mostly hung in grids, with some motifs printed large and some in black and white.
The world is fascinating, surprising and sometimes a little sad, these pictures say. You can see it like this. They’re not bad photos either. But they didn’t share anything either; Lars Eidinger likes to capture the subjects “impressions”, not the possibilities of making pictures. On Instagram or as a handy sketchbook, this funny situation works with a dash of thought.
Eidinger now rejects Instagram; he said he was addicted, so he deleted his account. That was news at the time. And what about the “great compassion” that should be shown here? With Lars Eidinger you will not see the eyes, which are the most important form of human expression. Emotions are created in people mainly through facial expressions and gestures. The photos you take almost show the eyes here you tend to see heads of hair and backs of heads.
People beg, sleep, look at their cell phones. Eidinger’s smartphone pictures were taken without his knowledge. Only very rarely does anyone look back. There is no interaction between the photographer and the protagonists of the images, for which there may be several reasons. Best of all, it’s easier than asking someone for permission.
The photographer has a distance
Or it’s just the process of his art. In any case, the world that Lars Eidinger has painted in his pictures seems strangely silent, even if it is full of accidents and careful attention to details. People often seem isolated, and so is the photographer. But is that a success?
Documentary photography is characterized no less by a deep interest in the other person, which also reveals the vulnerability of the other. Lars Eidinger stood at a distance. He didn’t make a contact. “O Mensch” photos are taken in public places and can be removed at any time. The only people who have to stay there forever are the people who work on the street or live there. He photographed both parties regularly.
You can see people doing odd jobs – the poster for the exhibition is a man dressed in a Mickey Mouse costume, resting in the evening sun on the shore of Lake Geneva. You can also see people advertising media on the traffic island (Cleveland, 2021, video) and a real seller.
Others live on the streets. Eidinger likes to create contrasts between the homeless sadness of homeless people and the promises of salvation by consumers, for example when he takes them in front of an expensive bedding store or under an advertisement showing families of he was happy sitting around the dinner tables.
What does the sharp contrast want to tell us? Most of the homeless people do not camp in front of billboards, shop windows or next to ATMs because they want to be part of a socially important table vivant, but because this place is good.
You can find homeless people everywhere in the cities where Lars Eidinger took his photographs; He is a painter who chooses these moments and turns them into recurring themes in his work. There is nothing wrong with having it all. But one might wonder why he did this.
The phrase “The world is shown as it is,” which is rare for an art museum, is mentioned in the notice, but no picture shows the world as it is, not even a million pictures. The pictures show one thing above all: attitude to the world. “Oh Mensch” shows funny moments and simple stereotypes. Lars Eidinger’s photography is one that is always in a safe space from other people, but he does not want to avoid the emotional and socially important effects that careless, unknown, faceless people can achieve in his photography.
The claim of someone who is passionate cannot be factually refuted or proven. But you can look at Lars Eidinger’s meme photography, which has been raised to the highest pedestal in K21, and say: This is not so.
“Lars Eidinger. Oh man”
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