The large-format photographs by Wolfgang Volz reveal to the viewers how humankind treats the landscape, the vulnerable skin of our planet, in a manner that is as much fascinating as it is upsetting. While the primeval stone circles in Scotland, or the ancient cultivated terraces and regulated rivers in China blend organically into the natural landscape, the industrial landscapes of America and Europe demonstrate how mankind has also been able to subjugate, exploit and deplete it.
The above photographs by Wolfgang Volz – in this exhibition – enter into an intriguing dialogue with his photographs taken of the legendary artistic interventions into the topographical spaces of America, Europe and Africa by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Wolfgang Volz is “the eye of Christo and Jeanne-Claude” (to quote Werner Spies). His photographs have congenially captured the monumental artistic events the artists created for a specific moment in history, rendering visible for a prolonged time the utopian spirit of Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s works: by wrapping, covering, tying up and concealing they draw our attention to the riches of both nature and culture. With a ruthlessly globalising human world in the background, Wolfgang Volz’s landscape photographs express the feast of human creativity, as well as an evocation in an attempt to ultimately attain a peaceful equilibrium between humans, technology and nature. In addition to Wolfgang Volz’s photographs documenting Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s projects, the exhibition brought over from the Ludwig Gallery of Oberhausen, Germany, presents his Russian, Chinese and American photographs, as well as those devoted to man’s tools of labour.
The exhibition has been supported by the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation.
