Der preisgekrönte Fotograf Stefan Boness setzte sich in seiner langjährigen Serie „Flanders Fields“ mit den Schlachtfeldern des Ersten Weltkriegs in Flandern auseinander. Der Titel verweist auf das insbesondere in der englischsprachigen Welt bekannte Gedicht “In Flanders Fields” des kanadischen Offiziers John McCrae, sowie auf die konzeptionelle Eingrenzung auf die einstigen Schlachtfelder Belgiens. Von 2005 bis heute kehrte Boness immer wieder und bewusst zu unterschiedlichen Jahreszeiten zurück, zusammen für mehr als ein dreiviertel Jahr: „Manche Themen sind flüchtig, andere bleiben. Das ist eben ein Thema, von dem kommt man nicht los.“
Between 13 January and 11 February 2018, photogapher Stephan Schenk presents his most impressive cycle “Kreuzweg” (way of the cross/crossing) on the global battles of the First World War in the eponymous exhibition at gallery Kunstraum Oktogon in Berne, Switzerland.
The whole cycle consists of 14 monumental woven tapestries, based on large-format photos of First World War battle landscapes. Schenk, however, did not make classic landscape pictures, but used reduction and abstraction instead: He photographed an area of two by three metres of the respective ground – the individual fighting space of a soldier, as well as the space for being laid at rest.
From 16 November 2017 to 30 March 2018, Jacques Grison presents his photos on the battlefield of Verdun from his series “Devant Verdun”in the eponymous exhibition in the gallery of the département’s administration in Bar-le-Duc (France) präsentieren. Since decades, Grison, who was born in the region, approaches the former battlefield through his photos: His pictures show the wounds of war, still visible in a landscape that was shaped by the fighting one hundred years ago.
Usually, wartist.org contains articles about exhibitions of other artists, movies, galleries and museums. Today, however, we have the pleasure to write on our own issues: ausgebildete PhotographerMartin Bayer (educated at Lette-Verein Berlin) presents from 28 February to 10 April 2014 his exhibition grounded/airborne atKleine Galerie (Torgauer Kunst- und Kulturverein “Johann Kentmann” e.V.). The photos from his series grounded show details of retired military planes; they will be historically commented by some aerial pictures from the First World War. Grounded addresses the medial and artistic aestheticisation of weapons, while both the clear assignment of the pictured objects to historic events and the alleged simple classification into “friend” and “enemy” become desintegrated.
