ART CITIES:Paris-Franz Ackermann
In the work of Franz Ackermann, paintings, drawings, murals and architectural elements all play a part. His work frequently deals with the double side of tourism: the glamour, speed and consumption of international travel but also the detritus, architectural scarring and garbage that it leaves behind, and his installations often take on the appearance of strange advertisements for a global tourism industry run amok.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Galerie Daniel Templon Archive
As part of Galerie Daniel Templon’s 50th birthday celebrations, Franz Ackermann is transforming the gallery space on Rue Beaubourg, in an exploration of ideas about ten major capital cities. The project “New Work” centres on Franz Ackermann’s particular interest in Paris and a number of its axes, such as that lying between the Gare du Nord and Gare de l’Est. His monumental paintings take the form of large exploded views that combine architectural elements with numerous Modernist references and abstract shapes in a burst of colours and materials. Key to his multifaceted work are his “Mental Maps” series, small watercolours and gouaches that he started producing in 1991 during his numerous journeys and residencies around the world and which often serve as inspirations for larger works. In a fusion of cartographic structures, architectural views, and flourishing ornamentation, he captures his subjective impressions of a particular locale, encapsulating in them the themes of globalization, mobility, and tourism, these are not literal depictions of specific places, but mental perceptions of urban cultures. Back in his studio in Berlin he subsequently developed paintings in which these drawing-like cartographies were transformed into monumental canvasses. Since about 1997 he has presented his work chiefly in the form of environments comprised of various media which completely surround the viewer. He rejects the traditional modernist manner of presentation in which paintings must be viewed completely autonomously in as neutral a space as possible. He considers the exhibition space as an essential component of his work, and intervenes in it by means of murals, architectural constructions, the manipulation of light and dark, and the routing of the viewer. With his installations he conjures up a total experience comparable to the dynamic of a metropolis.
Info: Galerie Daniel Templon, 30 rue Beaubourg, Paris, Duration: 9/4-28/5/16, Days & Hours: Mon-Sat 10:00-19:00, www.danieltemplon.com
