Kunststiftung DZ BANK

Adrian Sauer (* 1976, Berlin, GDR) provides our self with physical, emotional and spiritual impulses through his photographic works of art. He asks questions without expecting answers. With his methods, he opens up the mental structures of those who engage with his works. Ultimately, it is a procedure that exposes ideological thinking and action.

In addition to digital C-prints, digitally drawn images, and sculptural formulations, the exhibition also presents a photographic sound installation that delves into the philosophy of photography. For “Photographing Is” from 2019, the artist modified search results he received on Google in response to his entry “Photographing is”. To the result “photography is social and interactive”, for example, he adds other variations, such as “photography is antisocial and interactive, photography is social and passive, photography is antisocial and passive”. The artist reworked the results not only by adding different forms of negation to the sentences, but also by placing the sequence of “stanzas” in a new frame of reference. He then had the text recorded by the actress Charlotte Puder and her colleague Felix Preißler. By modifying the search results and recontextualizing the content, the listeners are enabled to question their own ideas.

The artist thus shows us that individual perception is more than a motif pictured on our retina. It is content, communication, impulse, awareness, questioning, cognition, and much more. With his approaches, Adrian Sauer questions our ideologies and enables us to redefine our identity again and again.