Voyeur I, 2024, Installation, Diameter: 200cm, fabric: 630 x 144 cm

Photo acetone transfer on curtain fabric, curved aluminium profile, applications of curtain accessories, steel chains

„What has faded in memory – must especially be remembered“

Voyeur I shows the traces of photographs and memes that the artist has scanned from books, taken from the internet, printed out and transferred onto curtain fabric. The inconspicuous portrait, family, landscape and still life photographs taken in domestic spaces are united by the fact that they were misused for propagandistic or humiliating purposes, and the work thematises the intentions behind these images of the people who used them.

How should we talk about such images? For instance, it shows pictures by the photographer Erna Lendvai-Dircksen, an important figure in German photographic history between 1918 and 1945. She began her racist project „Das deutsche Volksgesicht“ around 1916 and published illustrated books with portraits and landscape photographs of various regions of Germany from 1932 onwards. The photographs were used by the National Socialists for propaganda.

Today images and memes are being spread on social media that „subtly“ propagate right-wing ideologies. This happens, for example, via so-called „aesthetic accounts“ on platforms such as Facebook and TikTok.

Voyeur I challenges us to scrutinise the intentions behind certain images and to train our viewing habits.