LOTHAR BAUMGARTEN
Rheinsberg, Germany, 1944- Berlin, Germany, 2018
Director of Fundación Botín Art Workshop in 2012
Montaigne/Pemón, 1977-85
18 gelatin silver prints and wall drawing
Prints: 66.68 x 84.5 x 5.08 cm ea.; wall drawing: dimensions variable
The son of an anthropologist, Lothar Baumgarten has focused his artistic practice on analysing and questioning Western systems of thought and representation, as well as the ways our perception of and relation to other cultures are constructed. This led him to travel to remote areas on the confines of Colombia and Venezuela from 1977 to 1986, and live for eighteen months among the Yãnomãmi people in the upper Orinoco region, who at that time had had little contact with the outside world.
Taken during those trips, this series of photographs reflects upon how the Western fantasies of paradise and primitive people’s lives contrast heavily with the systematic destruction of their habitat by mining and agriculture conglomerates. Some of these images are captioned with words that provide a specific context for their understanding — a practice quite typical of the artist. The words “unberührt” (unspoiled) and “Dimension” relate to the physical nature of a landscape characterized by the absence of any trace of human activity and its monumental proportions, while “Nomaden” (nomad) describes the way of life of the tribes that occupy the territory. “Imaginaria” alludes to the way these images trigger Western people’s fantasy of the original land of paradise, the famous El Dorado described by the conquistadores
Lothar Baumgarten
Alemania, 1944
Baumgarten es reconocido como uno de los fundadores del arte conceptual desde los setenta. Aunque su obra es amplia y se pueden encontrar dibujos, películas y fotografías, el artista se ha dedicado principalmente a la escultura y la instalación.
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