Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Michael Jackson holding a baby out of the window of the Adlon Hotel, 2013, Horizontal Billboard, Toronto, Canada

MICHAEL SCHIRNER, PICTURES IN OUR MINDS

Auf dem größten Fotofestival der Welt 2013 in Toronto wurden 15 Pictures in our Minds auf 4 horizontal Billboards und 11 City Light Posters als Installation im öffentlichen Raum ausgestellt. Katalogauszug:

Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival is an annual event in May with Canadian and international artists and photographers exhibiting at more than 175 venues throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Founded as a not-for-profit organization in 1997 and now a charitable organization, the Festival is devoted to celebrating, and fostering the art and profession of photography, through a diverse range of programmes. As a leading proponent of photography, the Festival increases exposure and recognition for local, Canadian and international artists and is committed to advancing knowledge, creativity and innovation in photography. It stimulates excitement and discussion among a diverse audience that has grown to over 1.8 million. CONTACT is the largest photography event in the world, and premier event in Canada.

Michael Schirner’s series Pictures in our Minds (1985 – 2011) connects our processes of reading and visual interpretation, reflecting on how language is intimately connected with the cultural codes through which we understand images. Schirner’s stark descriptions of iconic photographs evoke images that have been engraved in our collective consciousness by the ubiquity of mass media. Drawing on the conventions of advertising and the strategies of conceptual art, they engage the viewer’s interpretive faculties, deliberately withholding any actual glimpse of the photos themselves. Displayed within the everyday context of billboards and street posters, the work highlights the public nature of visual culture and the role of images in structuring our perceptions. Referencing the plain tone of documentary photo captions, Schirner’s white texts on black backgrounds describe a wide range of notable images: many are traumatic, such as Naked Vietnamese child fleeing after a napalm attack, which conjures the photograph of Phan Thi Kim Phúc taken by Nick Ut (1972); others are lighthearted, such as Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out, which describes the uncharacteristic 1951 portrait of the physicist by Arthur Sasse. Each of Schirner’s image references share an ability to evoke the powers of our imaginations and a sense of cultural import that is greater than what can be signified by visual language alone.

Based in Berlin and Beijing, Schirner works at the intersection of multiple genres, blurring the boundaries between mass media, fine art, and photography. This wide range reflects the German artist’s diverse professional life: Schirner is a creative director in advertising, a professor of communication design, and an artist working at the intersection of media art, photography, performance, and installation.

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Osama Bin-Laden watching himself on television, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Passengers of US Airways flight await rescue on the Hudson River, 2013, Horizontal Billboard

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Mortally wounded member of Loyalist troops in the Spanish Civil War, 2013, Horizontal Billboard

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Crowds on the Berlin Wall, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Tortured Iraqi prisoner with hood, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Portrait of Che Guevara, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Marilyn Monroe poised over a subway air-shaft, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Mao Tse-tung swimming in Yangtze Kiang, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Naked Vietnamese child fleeing after a napalm attack, 2013, Horizontal Billboard

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Albert Einstein sticking his toungue out, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, Wreckage of the World Trade Center, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, The footprint of the first man on the moon, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster

Michael Schirner, Pictures in our Minds, The explosion of the airship Hindenburg, 2013, Vertical City Light Poster