Mastodawn

German text above, English below.

Schon seit mehreren Jahren habe ich das Gefühl, dass Digitalfotografie, später dann die Handyfotografie, und von unseren Bildern getrennt hat. Schöne Moment, Erlebnisse, Erinnerungsstücke sind in bildliche Inflation geraten. AI ermöglicht, dass Bilder ohne Aufnahmegerät entstehen. Sank mit dem Digitalen der Bildwert gegen Null, hat Künstliche Intelligenz den Wert ins Minus getrieben. Schlimmer noch: wir können Bildern nicht mehr trauen. Fake ist das allgegenwärtige Gespenst.

Wie anders ist ein schnell mit der Hand skizziertes Bild, egal wie stilvoll und künstlerisch wertvoll. Erlebtes und Erinnerungen werden konserviert, im Rahmen, mit Passepartout, werden sie zu persönlichen Schätzen. Like it!

For several years now, I’ve had the feeling that digital photography - and later, cell phone photography - has distanced us from our images. Beautiful moments, experiences, and mementos have become caught up in a visual inflation. Later on AI makes it possible to create images without a camera. While the value of images sank to zero with the rise of digital technology, artificial intelligence has driven that value into negative territory. Worse still: we can no longer trust images. Fake is the ever-present specter.

How different is a quick sketch drawn by hand, no matter how stylish or artistically valuable. Experiences and memories are preserved; framed and mounted, they become personal treasures. Like it!

#silentsunday #spring #frühjahr #kunst #art #zeitgenössischekunst #contemporaryart #surrealart #abstractart #ink #tinte #aquarell #watercolor #gedanken #toughts #sketch

Müsliman Apr 11

German text above, English below.

Wunderschöner Spaziergang. Frühlingsluft, Sonne, Gänseküken, zu mir selbst kommen und Freude nachklingen lassen.

A beautiful walk. Spring is in the air, sunshine, goslings and sense of joy.

#silentsaturday #spring #frühjahr #kunst #art #zeitgenössischekunst #contemporaryart #surrealart #abstractart #ink #tinte #gedanken #toughts #sketch

Nobird Unvogel Apr 8

That’s what human beings do (categorical imperative)! #WortArt #Berlin #Willkommen #cutletters #Art #ZeitgenössischeKunst #notdigital #invers

Müsliman Apr 7

German text above, English below.
#thoughtsfly

Gedanken fliegen. Ich sitze in meinem Künstlerzimmer, schaue zum Fenster, sehe meinen kleinen Pfennigbaum, den Garderobenständer der garnicht zu mir passt, die Vitrine mit historischen Fotoapparaten, das Haus gegenüber mit seiner unsymmetrischen Fensterfront. Da wohnen Rechtspopulisten. Demokratieuntergräber. Ich denke über Rechtspopulistische Kunst nach. Da findet Kulturkampf statt, in Gegenposition zu Offenheit, Diversität und Universalität. Rechtspopulistische Kunst will nationale Identität, Hierarchie und Tradition langfristig verankern, um positive Visionen über die eigene Gruppe hinweg zu unterbinden. Kulturkampf ist Bilderkampf.

Das darf die freie Kunst nicht zulassen! Das dürfen freie Künstler nicht zulassen! Das will und darf ich nicht akzeptieren!

Gedankenskizze auf Verpackungskarton.

My thoughts are on the move. I’m sitting in my studio, looking out the window, seeing my little money tree, the coat rack that doesn’t suit me at all, the display case with vintage cameras, the house across the street with its asymmetrical window front. Right-wing populists live there. Democracy saboteurs. I’m thinking about right-wing populist art. A culture war is taking place there, in opposition to openness, diversity, and universality. Right-wing populist art seeks to permanently embed national identity, hierarchy, and tradition in order to block positive visions that extend beyond its own group. A culture war is a war of images.

Free art must not allow this! Free artists must not allow this! I will not and cannot accept this!

Sketch by thoughts on card board.

#kunst #art #zeitgenössischekunst #contemporaryart #surrealart #abstractart #ink #tinte #gedanken #toughts #sketch

Swaantje Güntzel Apr 4

LUNAR LITTER or Things we left on the moon

I have posted this work before but because of obvious reasons I am posting it again. Putting aside all fascination with astronautics and outer space, we are currently transferring the problems we have on Earth into space unfortunately on every level. So far, without solutions that actually work and in an area where there are hardly any laws at all.

Garbage bag, inspired by the so-called “jettison bags” used in space travel. I had two of these bags produced and embroidered with the lettering “lunar litter only.” On May 23, 2023, one bag was sent to the HQ of NASA with the request that it be taken to the moon as part of the Artemis II mission, planned for 2025 (which has now just happenend), to retrieve some of the 190 tons of material left behind by NASA during the Apollo missions.

You find all the objects that were left behind on the moon listed in the "Catalogue of Manmade Material on the Moon" by NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration here: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/final-catalogue-of-manmade-material-on-the-moon.pdf

I realized the work with the help of my wonderful assistant Joana Bacelar.
Installation view of my exhibition "Instant Paradise" at Villa Dessauer Bamberg (Museen der Stadt Bamberg) in 2023.

[Swaantje Güntzel, Lunar Litter (Jettison Bag), 2023, polyester, embroidery thread, plastic, galvanized metal, 50 x 53 x 98 cm]

Foto: Tobias Hübel

#art #conceptualart #contemporaryart #kunst #konzeptkunst #zeitgenössischekunst #installation #nasa #esa #spacedebris #orbitaldebris #artemisII #moon #mond #lunarlitter #jettisonbags #apollo #apollomissions #weltraumschrott #artistinscience #exhibition #villadessauer #bamberg #exhibition #instantparadise #swaantjeguentzel #swaantjegüntzel #ausstellung #lunarlitteronly #space #spacetravel #raumfahrt

Müsliman Mar 28

German text above, English below.

Künstlerisch bin ich auf der Suche. Nicht einfach. Purzelbäume im Kopf und durchgeknallte Akteure auf der Weltbühne. Deshalb schaue ich Altes an und verbinde es mit Neuem. Hier eine analoge Schwarzweiss-Fotografie (Akt Mehrfachbelichtung im Negativformat 4x4 cm, aufgenommen 2012), digital gedruckt überdruckt mit Linoldruck.

Artistically, I’m on a quest. It’s not easy. My mind is spinning, and the world stage is filled with crazed actors. That’s why I look to the past and blend it with the present. Here is an analog black-and-white photograph (a nude multiple exposure in 4x4 cm negative format, taken in 2012), digitally printed and overprinted with a linocut.

#mixedmedia #fotografie #analogfotografie #photography #analogphotography #linolschnitt #linocut #printmaker #tinte #ink #kunst #art #zeitgenössischekunst #contemporaryart #abstractart

Swaantje Güntzel Mar 17

The old days II

This is another work I found while rummaging through my digital photo albums. Back from the days when I used to stroll through the Westphalian forests together with Jan Philip Scheibe and we made art just for the sake of art. Here we equipped hunting stands with flower boxes. The boxes contained red geraniums.

[Swaantje Güntzel, Hochsitz 3, 2008, Intervention]

#art #conceptualart #contemporaryart #kunst #konzeptkunst #zeitgenössischekunst #wald #forest #hochsitz #huntingstand #geranien #geraniums #flowers #intervention #westfalen #westphalia #jagd #hunting #blumen #balkonblumen

Swaantje Güntzel Mar 14

The old days

Over the last few days, I’ve been rummaging through my digital photo albums and found a few old works from the times when I used to stroll through the Westphalian forests together with Jan Philip Scheibe and we just made art for the sake of art. For this one we mounted a photo wallpaper ("Paradise") onto panels and staged it in the forest. There were more spruce trees back then.

[Swaantje Güntzel, Fototapete, 2008, temporäre Installation]

#art #conceptualart #konzeptkunst #contemporaryart #zeitgenössischekunst #fotografie #photography #photowallpaper #fototapete #wald #ostwestfalen #westfalen #westphalia #fichten #spruce #spruces #paradies #paradise #wald #forest #fichte #spruce #fichtensterben