Klaus Maehring
ISIS is developing a 3/4 month residency with Klaus, a photographer we met
at the 'Artistic mobility across Europe' conference in Paris last year. He
has been making stunning portraits, using an old 5 X 4 plate camera of people
living in rural locations around Eastern Europe. For half the year he travels
around in a Russian bus, which is his home and darkroom. He sets up Galerie
Nowhere exhibitions in remote rural locations.
Klaus runs the company 'On The Road Productions' part of this involves developing
collaborative projects with other artists. This summer he set up a Nomadic Village
Project by a small community north of Sophia in Bulgaria and was joined by other
artists with mobile homes and studios. They created work in response to the community,
landscape and each other. North East artists, Lindsey Duncanson and Marek Gabrysch
travelled there to be part of this process.
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Klaus Maehring & On The Road Productions
The Nomad and the Village, Project 2010
"One never goes as far, as when one doesn’t know where one is going." - C. Columbus
The project will alternate between nomad and village; the nomad
will travel around altering counties alone, documenting, photographing,
leave marks and traces to suggest the memory of his presence. Meet people
only to instantly leave them again. Absolute independency, and very
little knowledge about the countries he travels will make the nomad’s
trip one of a discovery. The village forms the social harbour
of this expedition. In the village, the nomad will communicate his
findings, meet new people, react to them, with them, forming collaborate
and happenings.
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Objectives
I will drive around and take pictures
This is the core of my work: Process-based photography. I follow
an open,undirected approach, reacting on impulses to connect with people
as well as with ‘the world’. Indiscriminately photographing
small villages, landscapes, interpreting rural aspects of Northumberland.
There is an archaic truth to be found in the wild, unforgiving country,
that one can’t find in urban areas.
I will leave pictures behind
Since 2007 I have been following the Galeria Nowhere idea. It means
to exhibit far away from the usual audience. It can be an exhibition
of portraits that I put up in the village I took them, or mural prints on walls
of ruins in the middle of nowhere. In addition I want to use the existing webcams and make shows in
front of them. On certain dates people will be able to watch those shows
using the live-stream of the webcams. Mural about the Nomadic Village, BG 2009
I will meet with other artists and nomads
Weaving the invisible village, furthering the idea of the Nomadic
Village. Its aim is to create a non-geographical, invisible structure, that connects nomadic artists and helps them to find each other and
to communicate with each other. Modern artistic nomadism (to live and work on
the road) opens completely new perspectives and directs artists towards
personal experiences and motives, which are important to create a balance
to the artificiality of the world.
I will make an exhibition and public printing
The exhibition will be spread over the city, partly inside of institutions, partly as public art. This way I can incorporate different qualities
of exhibiting photography that will respond to different locations, discussing aspects of ‘inside/outside the walls of institutions’.
A ‘straight’ series of portraits might go well with a white room, whilst the rough
qualitiy of murals will be better situated on the streets. The printing process can be done like a performance, transporting
the process of analogue printing to an audience.
Galeria Nowhere, Bulgaria 2008
more information on Klaus Maehring
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