Dirimart presents “Transit: Again/Always/Forever” by Franz Ackermann. Franz Ackermann mesmerizes the viewers by transforming our perception of reality. Employing a radiantly colored landscape of shapes, Ackermann investigates the themes of cultural commodification, globalism and urban generation. “Transit: Again/ Always/Forever” can be viewed from April 7th to May 13th.
Franz Ackermann’s paintings constitute the chronicle of his tragicomic impressions from his travels. The psychedelic explosions, dense layers of fog and modular landscapes offer a cross section of an apocalyptic world. While exploring the cultural differences, he visits different corners around the world on the pursuit of the unusual. During his visits, he seeks the “unknown”. He transmits his travel experiences to the viewers through his works. In front of his paintings, one would also communicate both to his past experiences and imagination. Franz Ackermann defines his work as “ mental maps”. Each kaleidoscopic canvas configures the impressions of the artist of a certain place. Geometrical compositions keep record of the artist’s thoughts and feelings while referring to a topographical geography at the same time. Ackermann’s impressions of the complexities of the world are intensified through materials and objects. It is no longer a matter of describing the world but of reconfiguring a scene that has already been lived through. It is these conditioned and embedded experiences that might now provide material for maps.
The artist employs two-dimensional images to subvert the relationship between painting and space, two-dimensional image and physical experience of an exhibition. His artistic meshwork spreads out like a root, a structure proliferating in all directions without any hierarchical system of order. The collages and ornaments seem to follow a chaotic and dynamic force released by gravity in their compulsion to expand. There are vortex-like concentrations of graphic elements and colored shapes, which attract pulls the eye in like a vacuum. Ackermann invites the viewers into the mazes of his world.
Ackermann highlights how intensively the change in perspective between reality and digital representation governs our perception. Through the data highway, distances compress and stretch as they incorporate the individual world in its’ web.
