WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS Blog » human

Vladimir Shcherban | moving people

W&V — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:30:36 +0000

Moving people is a fascinating short art movie by Vladimir Shcherban, the director of Belarus Free Theatre. This is his first film work where he presents actors with whom he has collaborated in the underground theatre. Human emotion, individual identities, movement, light and fragments of the human body are the elements which tell the tales of the 6 short stories in this film.

Vladimir Shcherban about the film:
“The idea to make this video came to my mind when i found the illuminant in my temporary loft appartment in New York City. My friend finally bought a camera for saved money and helped me with my film. The film production was carried out in the room of one of New York City hotels.”

Video and photos by: Vladimir Shcherban | Belarus Free Theatre website |

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Claudia Rogge | individualism, reproducibility and mass

W&V — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 17:04:56 +0000

In the contemporary art scene, German artist Claudia Rogge is an exceptional person. She continually photographs crowds of practically identical people , all dressed in the same way and holding the same pose to create a unique mass identity. Arranged either in repetition, tessellation or in choreographed groups, her figures represent the unique little tiles that form an intricate mosaic. Man himself turns into a pattern, into an ornament. At the same time there is the question of whether the conceptual classification is justified. Are they really patterns or ornaments? Might they not simply be masses or forms? It seems, however, that we can cope best with the conceptual term of pattern.

Although Claudia Rogge shows us patterns, her works no longer shows an indistinct and homogeneous element but one made up of minuscule differences that need to be sought out carefully in each single photograph. The disposition of the persons depicted reminds spectators of their own movements and postures, which are no mere coincidences but basic dimensions of the sense of social direction. Postures and emotions correspond with each other. Analysing the body language is helpful for a better understanding of other people. Claudio Rogge plays with perception, which she carries on. She shows her wish to bring things closer together in terms of space and time. “If you pause motionless”, says photographer Robert Doisneau, “people will look at you.”

This is one of the elements which makes Claudia Rogge´s pictures so attractive. A motionlessness that repeats itself and thus appears to be movement within stillness.They can be approached in the same way one would approach a still life. With Vermeer, says philosopher Paul Virilio, the living world corresponds with a still life. With Claudia Rogge it seems the same yet with a slight difference: she has raised the living world of mere illusion to the status of an art icon. Our age, in which the mass media are left to themselves, has accomplished the step from the necessary to the superfluous. Claudia Rogge turns our gaze back to the aesthetic glossy print with its mass of people returning to us the individual within us.

Photos by Claudia Rogge | Claudia Rogge website | Sources: Marianne Hoffmann

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Vangelis Paterakis | Shadow life

W&V — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 12:45:04 +0000

Vangelis Paterakis is a Greek photographer and artist. For his commissioned work he collaborated often on editorials for magazines and with advertising companies.

Shadow life is a second series of art photos after his shadow series.
Vangelis Paterakis says himself about this work:
“It is a second creation of organisms that make up an unnoticed realm of life as we don’t know it”
With Shadow Life Vangelis Paterakis continues seeking bodies that give birth to new figures and shadows that rise new souls. His pictures remain familiar and their figures emit an instant mood for creation, annihilating the stillness of the picture offering to the spectator a side of life far from its daily perception. He gives shape to the human shadow that immaterial element of us all an indefinite subject that appears when light strikes a surface only to then melt away and blend in with the surrounding surfaces. The concept and images create a fascinating space for philosophical reflections and remind us of a line written by the Swiss thinker Carl Justav Jung:
“Contact with our shadows allows us to identify more closely with ourselves and touch a profound part of very being.”

Photos Vangelis Paterakis | Studio Paterakis | Shadow and Shadow life series

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Willy Verginer | sculptures and vibrant colour blocking

W&V — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 07:54:46 +0000

Sculptor Willy Verginer was born in 1957 in Bressanone and currently works and lives in Ortisei, Italy. He creates interesting sculptures and installations using the traditional craft of woodcarving. At first glance all the figures seem to reflect everyday life. This idea gets strengthened by the fact that most of them also wear contemporary casual clothing. They also have a link with the archaic and classic Greek sculptures. However, a closer and more focused look at the work shows that it goes beyond just that. The compositions of the installations, the positioning, the inclusion of surreal elements and the use of vibrant colour blocking across three dimensional surfaces which cuts the sculptures into fragments, lifts these works above just pure perceptual and figurative art. These elements and details give the viewer an access into the deeper conceptual layers of the fascinating work produced by Willy Verginer.

Photos: Willy Verginer | sculptures and installations

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Christopher Baker: Hello World!

W&V — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:09:59 +0000

Hello World! or: How I Learned to Stop Listening and Love the Noise is an immersive, large-scale audio visual installation comprised of thousands of unique video diaries gathered from the Internet. The project is a meditation on the contemporary plight of democratic, participative media and the fundamental human desire to be heard.

Christopher Baker engages with his work often the rich collection of social, technological and ideological networks present in the urban landscape. Read also more about him and his creations in an earlier article posted on the Warmenhoven & Venderbos blog here.

On one hand, new media technologies like YouTube have enabled new speakers at an alarming rate. On the other hand, no new technologies have emerged that allow us to listen to all of these new public speakers. Each video consists of a single lone individual speaking candidly to a (potentially massive) imagined audience from a private space such as a bedroom, kitchen, or dorm room. The multi-channel sound composition glides between individuals and the group, allowing viewers to listen in on unique speakers or become immersed in the cacophony. Viewers are encouraged to dwell in the space.

Recently the Hello World audio visual installation was also used as backdrop for an interesting special on Swiss Television (Schweizer Fernsehen) called: special Kulturplatz Extra report. This TV special focused on the theme: “Living with the computer: blessing or curse?” The reports range from the hippie roots of personal computing in silicon valley, to robot therapy for the elderly.

Photos,video and source: Christopher Baker | Vimeo | Kulturplatz Extra

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Spencer Tunick major installations

W&V — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:38:27 +0000

The monumental installations created by ,the New York based artist, Spencer Tunick are an inspiring and interesting dialogue between the naked human body and the public spaces they are placed in. But, at the same time, they are also a dialogue between the individual human and the larger group. By taking pictures of hundreds and sometimes thousands of naked bodies at specific locations he transforms human individuals to sculptural objects. By doing this he shows and opens a new point of view or perception of humans, nature and architecture.

In his early work he focussed more on individual nude bodies or small groups. This made these works more intimate compared to the massive installations for which he is now known. His work can be considered as a crossover between an installation and a performance.

Spencer Tunick:
“A body is a living entity. It represents life, freedom, sensuality, and it is a mechanism to carry out our thoughts. A body is always beautiful to me. It depends on the individual work and what I do with it and what kind of idea lies behind it — if age matters or not. But in my group works, the only difference is how far people can go if it rains, snows etc.”

On March 1st, 2010 he created his latest work. Tunick set up a series of installations titled “The Base” on the Sydney Opera House Forecourt and inside the Opera House. These installations were carried out as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras and were Tunick’s first large-scale installation in Sydney, with over 5,200 participants.

In the below video by Ralph Goertz, Spencer Tunick was followed by the Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie during the creation of his installation at the Museum Kunst Palast, Düsseldorf in 2006.

Photos top Spencer Tunick | Photo centre Reuters | Photo bottom Wood/Getty | Video by Ralph Goertz, Institut für Kunstdokumentation und Szenografie

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Robert Mapplethorpe retrospective

W&V — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:50:36 +0000

The NRW Forum in Düsseldorf has organised a major retrospective of Robert Mapplethorpe’s photographs. Mapplethorpe (1946-1989) dominated photography in the late twentieth century and paved the way for the recognition of photography as an art form in its own right. Both during his life and since his death, Mapplethorpe’s work has been the subject of much controversial debate.His radical portrayals of nudity and sexual acts were always controversial; some of his photos caused a stir and frequently resulted in protests outside exhibitions. Above all, Robert Mapplethorpe developed his own photographic style that paid homage to the ideals of perfection and form.

‘I look for the perfection of form. I do this in portraits, in photographs of penises, in photographs of flowers.’

The fact that the photographs are displayed on snow-white walls underpins this view of his work and consciously moves away from the coy Boudoir-style presentation of his photographs on lilac and purple walls a dominant feature of exhibitions of Mapplethorpe’s work for many years and opens up the work to a more concept-based, minimalist view of things.

The exhibition in the NRW Forum covers all areas of Mapplethorpe’s work, from portraits and self-portraits, homosexuality, nudes, flowers and the quintessence of his oeuvre the photographic images of sculptures, including early Polaroids. It will run until 15 August 2010.

Trailer of the film Robert Mapplethorpe “Shapes” by Ralph Goertz | IKS-Medienarchiv

Top photo: Robert Mapplethorpe at his Whitney Retrospective 1988 by Jonathan Becker, Vanity Fair

Photos by Robert Mapplethorpe | Top Photo by Jonathan Becker, Vanity Fair | Video by Ralph Goertz

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Body moulds & cloned in black

W&V — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:13:34 +0000

Body moulds and cloned in black (Clothing sculptures). Conceptual objects: exact tailored copies of the bodies of Warmenhoven & Venderbos translated into a rubber coated fabric and black leather.

From the WARMENHOVEN & VENDERBOS archives | Body moulds | More Warmenhoven & Venderbos projects |

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