„Why don’t we“

exhibit these things? Works which captured our curiosity, which we encountered in emails, newspaper articles, conversations, chance encounters, a Volume Imaginaire, developed from the continuous friendly exchange between Wilhelm Schürmann and Daniela Steinfeld. They played with the power of imagination with a shared, everlasting desire to bring, from their vague state of different perceptions, a surprisingly quiet poetry to the world. Internal, external.

„I’ll show you something“; „What do you think“; „It’s a great match“; „nope, won’t hold“ – a to and fro of ideas, thoughts and the repeated act of looking perhaps leads to a viewable exhibition.

The title „Volume Imaginaire“ (borrowed from a work by Joëlle Tuerlinckx) thus names the collaborative process that led to the exhibition, as well as the exhibited works.

Lucia Bru, *1970 Belgium, lives and works in Brussels

The sculptor devotes all her energy to the things and their peculiarities themselves, whereby each object is first imagined and left completely “out of control” to its own expansion, and then taken for what it is.

Marina Faust, Austrian artist and photographer, lives and works in Vienna

As the only photographer to have worked with Martin Margiela throughout his career, she now takes a fresh look at her photographic series commissioned between 1990 and 2008. They acquire a peculiar materiality through printing on special tissue paper.

Trude Friedrich, *1955 Argentina, lives and works in Walleshausen

The subject of her work are everyday, inconspicuous occurrences, casual views, which Friedrich enhances through her artistry: Lawns, houses, fences. The subtle variations or displacements of found reality in her art create an irritating effect.

Nicolas Jasmin, *1967 in France, lives and works in Vienna

Nicolas Jasmin is interested in the conditions of painting and the process between existing and still possible works.

Manfred Paul, *1942 in Schraplau, lives and works in Berlin

His still lifes from “Nature Morte” are an echo of Vanitas or Memento mori. It is nothing less than a memory of transience and the need to capture every moment. His photographs contribute to the reflection on the “inner” life and the complex concept of intimacy in the GDR.

Wilhelm Schürmann, *1946 Dortmund

Wilhelm Schürmann is a German photographer, art collector, exhibitor and professor of photography. Schürmann’s gaze confirms photography as a highly effective means of analyzing reality as well as of descriptively narrating personal and collective views and memories. With humour and self-irony, Wilhelm Schürmann devotedly shows factual living conditions as well as an unforgotten sense of life.

Anita Leisz, *1973 Austria, lives and works in Vienna.

Leisz herself uses the expression “building a story” for her works. As if one could not only build a form out of plasterboards, but through a decisive process and formal precision also “incorporate” a charge of intensity, personality and contradiction – an extremist variant of concrete art.

Ulrike Schulze, *1985 Dormagen, lives and works in Köln

Her rawly processed, puristic objects are of a poetic sensual quality, which seems to come from a mysterious world. They oscillate between the familiar, the foreign and the imaginary dreamlike. Grace, aggression, fragility and coarseness collide.

Franziska Strauss, *1984 Cottbus, lives and works in Berlin

Franziska Strauss directs her camera at people. On the one hand she dedicates herself to dance as a means of expression of human communication and moods, and on the other to street photography in which she observes people in public spaces.

Joëlle Tuerlinckx, *1958 Brussels, lives and works in Brussels

Tuerlinckx’s art is based on a long-lasting engagement with simple things; found objects or utensils that cross her path and are consistently collected by her in a comprehensive archive. Her wall and floor objects combine themes of art with philosophical questions about the nature and relationship of time, place and language.

David Umemoto, *1971, lives and works in Montreal, Canada

David Umemoto’s concrete works function as studies of volume. At the interface of sculpture and architecture, these miniature pieces are reminiscent of temporary buildings or monuments located in distant lands. They refer to the archaic and the ephemeral, despite the solidity and modernity of the medium.