In the End, Though, Nothing Is Lost at Deutsches Haus, New York University

Welcome to Deutsches Haus, New York’s leading institution for the culture and language of the German-speaking world. Located in the historic Greenwich Village district, Deutsches Haus is an integral part of New York University. Since 1977, it has provided New Yorkers with a unique forum for cultural, intellectual, and artistic exchange with Germany, Austria, and Switzerland through its cultural program.

Deutsches Haus at NYU is located at 42 Washington Mews, New York (image courtesy Deutsches Haus at NYU, 2018)

Opening at Deutsches Haus at NYU on April 6, 2018, Landscapes – In The End, Though, Nothing is Lost, gives a remarkable insight into Elias Wessel’s Landscapes series. The works and documentary materials on view, which have never been exhibited in the US before, give a profound insight into a project that marks a watershed in the artist’s work.

Landscapes was initiated during an artist residency in Russia in 2014, focusing on the neglected suburban periphery of the city of Kursk near the Ukrainian border. Within the residency project the artist was urged to produce documentary material of designated areas prior to their subsequent demolition and future commercial development as shopping malls and offices. The simple documentary idea gave the artist considerable aesthetic anxiety, and he undertook to make one image each day using intentional camera movement, rapidly panning the camera during exposure from elevated viewpoints at a distance of one or two kilometers. The artist’s concerns with creating a pictorial (hence painterly) effect in these images expunged the immediacy of human presence and the images took on the character of abstractions.

The exhibition is on view until May 26, 2018. The bilingual (German and English) accompanying catalogue, published by NYU Arts & Science, designed by Uwe Melichar in cooperation with the artist, and with essays by Anastasia Sokolova & Vladimir Daybov, Union of Artists of Russia, Dr. Jenny Graser, Städel Museum Frankfurt (read here in German or English) and Prof. Dr. Frank Wolff, Modern History / IMIS, University of Osnabrück (read here in German or English) provides detailed background information on the Landscapes series. Additionally, in the framework of the exhibition, there is a complementary artist talk moderated by Peter Duhon, Director of Art Comments and an interview with the artist published on the website of Deutsches Haus at NYU and, in parts, within the spring issue of the quarterly magazine NYU Arts Digest.

Installation view of Landscapes VII, 2014 within the solo exhibition Landscapes – In the End, Though, Nothing Is Lost at Deutsches Haus at NYU. The exhibition presents all seven images of the initial, smaller sized Kursk Edition (60 x 60 cm). The original photographs are 240 x 240 cm each (all exhibition images © Elias Wessel and VG Bild-Kunst Bonn with courtesy of Deutsches Haus at NYU, 2018)

Landscapes I, 2014, Color Photograph, Kursk Edition 60 x 60 cm (Kursk Edition; Original 240 x 240 cm)

Landscapes II, V and III, 2014, Color Photographs, 60 x 60 cm (Kursk Edition; Original 240 x 240 cm)

Poster for the exhibition Elias Wessel: In the end, though, nothing is lost, designed by CPE, New York

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