“The forests give way to man and his culture”, this was already recognized by Giambattista Vico in 1725. For almost ten years I have been photographing trees along my way, and in a later process these wooden found objects are digitally felled.
Our relationship to the tree is disturbed. Already Napoleon arranged plane trees to be placed on country roads and squares - only to provide shade for his soldiers. Ever since Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, we have known how natural scenarios are artificially created. A forest transforms to a park. Since then trees have been documented as having an almost undisputed romantic quality.
Yet this long-standing form of vegetation is extremely versatile and the natural landscape of our latitudes. There are trees that (shaped by external influences) have a particular growth form. Some are small and squat. Others are gnarled or knotted. Still others have grown streamlined with the wind and stand alone on a cliff.
So the tree is the focus of my search for special forms and scenarios - not at least against the background of its importance for ecosystems, as a provider of shade and carbon storage. They convert CO2 from the atmosphere into oxygen and growth.
With an intervention in the photo the image transforms into a surreal investigation: a double image emerges, one can see the living tree in almost its full glory and at the same time a new horizon opens up and one can see how the landscape would look like without it.
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BIO/CV
Marcel Stahn
*12.11.1984 in Duisburg
lives and works in Cologne, Germany
education
Studies in fine arts with Prof.in Rita McBride at
Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (2012 - 2017)
Studies BA Communication Design (Visual
Communication with Gerhard Vormwald) at HSD
(2008 - 2012)
exhibitions (selection)
Arte Laguna Prize 2022/23 finalist - Arsenale -
Venice (11.03 – 16.04.2023)
Premio Combat Prize 2022 finalist - Museo Civico
Giovanni Fattori - Livorno (2022)
“volcanoes” - LIFE SPORT - Athens (2019)
“come to where the carbon is” - Kunst an Kölner
Litfaßsäulen (2019)
“if is body” - Rund Gang at Kunstakademie -
Düsseldorf (2017)
“Cornucopia” - in a prolog for “Von fremden
Ländern in eigenen Städten” - MAP - Düsseldorf
(2017)
„Gruppenausstellung Halle 3“ - postPost Grand
Central - Düsseldorf (2017)
„Akademie“ - KIT - Kunst im Tunnel - Düsseldorf
(2017)
„Akademie [Arbeitstitel]“ - Kunsthalle -
Düsseldorf (2017)
“ex_AdA Nischenpreis 2016 - ‘ex Außenstelle der
Akademie, Düsseldorf (2016)
“die digitale” - Weltkunstzimmer - Düsseldorf
(2016)
“Snap to Grid” - Los Angeles Center for Digital
Art - Los Angeles (2016)
“General Exposure” - Museum Kunstpalast,
Düsseldorf - cooperation to “Die Grosse 2015”
(2015)
“Feldstärke” - PACT Zollverein, Essen (2015)
“Talkshow” - Malkasten, Düsseldorf (2015)
“Young Artists” - Galerie Artisani, Lünen (2015)
“Nacht der jungen Kultur” - Schauplatz,
Langenfeld (2015)
“Hogan Lovells Kunstförderpreis” - Sky Office,
Düsseldorf (2015)
“Alibi Position” - Galerie 52, Essen (2015)
“Podium Kunst” - Rundgang Kunstakademie,
Düsseldorf - Podiumsdiskussion zum Thema Kunst
aus der Veranstaltungsreihe “Zusammenarbeit”
(2014)
“0G” [Zero-G] - Werkschau Fachhochschule
Düsseldorf - Abschlussarbeiten Fachbereich
Design (2012)
“Made in Düsseldorf ” - Theatermuseum,
Düsseldorf - Ausstellung Theaterfotografie (2011)