The practice of archiving permeates the artistic work of Katharina Gaenssler (born 1974 in Munich; lives and works in Munich). Drawing on an extensive collection of photographs, she develops a visual memory that unfolds along temporal and spatial sequences. Until 2015/16, her work centered on extensive series of images, which she presented in book form or realized as complex spatial collages. She analyzes and documents spatial structures and questions the fundamental conditions of seeing and perception in order to open up new perspectives on the relationship between image, space, and reality. In countless detailed photographs, she captures spaces through a visual grid. The individual images are assembled in the exhibition space into large-format, multi-perspective photo installations. At Art Cologne, BRITTA RETTBERG presents works from the “HDT” series, which were created in the context of the exhibition “Rasterfahndung – Das Raster in der Kunst nach 1945” (Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, 2012) and depict Hanne Darboven’s studio. Over the course of two weeks, Gaenssler photographed three of Darboven’s 28 studio and living spaces in Hamburg-Haburg. For the photo installation in the exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, a selection of images of the so-called “Tower”—one of Darboven’s rooms—was assembled. She arranged the approximately 4,500 individual photographs on a 145-square-meter wall surface to form a large-format multi-perspective photo collage.

Patrick Ostrowsky (born in 1991 in Schwandorf; lives and works in Munich, Switzerland) combines sculpture, objects, painting, and installation based on a critical exploration of (temporary) architecture and natural spaces, as well as of materials and ritual. He focuses on sculpture and its relationship to space, its function, and its intersection with architecture and design; theories of Minimal Art, Post-Minimal Art, and Land Art influence his work in diverse ways. Ostrowsky draws on the material aspects of places and abstract phenomena in the urban landscape to translate structures of urban life and strategies of temporary architecture into sculpture. The artist explores the relationship between the body, space, and the structures that hold them together. He gives form to memories and creates works that preserve the physical remnants of the absent and the past within the present. He regards surfaces as repositories of touch and impression. Continuing his ongoing exploration of the surface as a vessel for memories, Ostrowsky employs marbling and frottage in his new series of works on paper.

Tatjana Vall (*1994 in Sombor, SRB, lebt u. arbeitet in München/Berlin) challenges conventional perceptions of authenticity and seeks to uncover the subtle irregularities of physical reality. Drawing on the natural sciences, psychology, and art history, she creates mechanical sculptures, ecosystemic installations, and mixed-media compositions to explore the interconnections between humans, nature, and technology. Vall’s multilayered pigment prints on aluminum plates evoke the materiality of the daguerreotype. Yet in Vall’s digital image productions, the digital medium simulates its trace. The basis consists of motifs generated from found images and subsequently edited. In doing so, they challenge established expectations of photographic imaging processes. The interferences—double exposures, cross-fades, stamped patterns, irregularities, and blurriness—question not so much what an image depicts, but rather what an image generates—how it is loaded, rendered, or printed. The works exhibited at Art Cologne depict monumental architectures and imaginary landscapes that oscillate between abstraction and figuration. They take as their starting point photographic images of anti-fascist monuments as well as architectural and art-historical motifs. The works draw upon this documentary material but extract it from its original context and transpose it into newly constructed pictorial spaces.