Anne Pöhlmann
1978 Dresden, Germany
Lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany.


2005
Degree in fine arts, Art Academy Düsseldorf, Germany
2003 – 2005
Art Academy Düsseldorf, Prof. Rita McBride.
2001 – 2004
Art Academy Düsseldorf, Prof. Thomas Ruff.
1999 – 2001
Academy of Fine Arts, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität,
Prof. Vladimir Spacek, Mainz.
1996 – 1999
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz and Université de Bourgogne, Dijon
(Art history, roman languages and philosophy).
1997 – 1998
Guest student École des Beaux-Arts in Dijon, Frankreich.






Solo Shows:
2009
„REVUES“, Galerie Clages, Cologne, Germany
2009
„Building Beyond Success“, together with Diango Hernandez, Galerie Clages, Cologne, Germany
2007
„Sequels“, Galerie Marietta Clages, Cologne, Germany
2007
„Walkthrough“, at Hardware Media Kunstverein, Dortmund, Germany
2005
„... ten minutes from here“, stadtraum.org, Düsseldorf, Germany
2005
„Screen“, Büro DC, Cologne, Germany


Selected Group shows and projects:
2009
„Berlin: Twelve Arguments Part I”, Berlin Germany
2009
„Mobilehome”, one-week workshop, Algarve, Portugal
2008
„Retromorphosis“, CUBE, Manchester, UK
2008
„Somewhere, sometime“, Daire Sanat Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
2008
„new talents 2008 – junge biennale köln“, Germany
2007
Group show together with Juan Pérez Agirregoikoa, Monika Stricker and
Bernhard Walter, Galerie Marietta Clages, Cologne, Germany
2007
„Retromorphosis - Dresden‘s New Town“, group show with Dan Wilkinson, Oliver Elser, Toby Paterson, Thomas Neumann at Fermynwoods Contemporary Arts and Hertfordshire University Galleries, UK
2007
„Urban Spheres“, film screening within ‚Städtische Bühne’, Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
2006
"Statik in Bewegung - Architektur in Film, Fernsehen und Video", film festival of the Bund Deutscher Architekten and the Videonale 11, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
2006
„LOVE, CABLES and VOICES“, together with Diango Hernandez, Discoteca Flaming Star, Britta Ebermann and Gilta Jansen, nüans, Düsseldorf, Germany
2006
„Urban Appearances”, with Rui Calcada Bastos, Carsten Humme, Stephanie Kiwitt, Imi Knoebel, Ines Lechleitner, Amy Patton, Pia Rönicke, Miguel Rothschild, Yorgos Sapountzis, Jan Verbee, Video Parcours Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, Berlin, Germany
2006
„Anspach Center“, group show and newspaper, Brussels, Belgium
2006
„Stadt/Fotografie“, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany
2005
„Surfshop“, project with Glen Rubsamen and others at „Contemporary Import“,
Art Forum, Berlin, Germany
2004
„Völkerball“, group project at SculptureCenter, New York, USA
2004
„Nachstellungen“, Halle 6 - Galerie Christine Hölz, Düsseldorf, Germany
2004
„Klasse - Atelier“, House of culture, Brno, Czech Republic
2004
„Zugzwang“, PLAYSTATION, Galerie Fons Welters, Amsterdam
2003
„Urban Spaces“, European Architectural Photography Prize 2003, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
2003
„In Out“, International Festival of the Digital Image 2003, Prague, Czech Republic
2003
„wir hatten den Himmel über uns“, KOELN in Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
2002
„Digitale Bildwelten“, Recklinghausen, Germany



Awards
2006
„[HMKV]“- Award of the country North Rhine-Westphalia for media artists, Germany
2006
Commendation, "Stadt/Fotografie", Art Award, Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Germany
2003
Commendation, "Urban Spaces", European Architecture-Photography Award 2003
Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Germany
2002
Commendation, "Digitale Bildwelten", Art Award, Recklinghausen, Germany



Bibliography
2008
„new talents 2008 – junge biennale köln“, text Anne Schloen, new talents 2008, Cologne
2006
„Stadt/Fotografie“, Ed. C. Bender, H. Häusler, M. Matuszkiewicz, Düsseldorf
2004
„Nachstellungen, Junge Fotografie aus Düsseldorf“, Ed. H. Meister, Düsseldorf
2003
„European Architectural Photography Prize 2003“, Ed. db architekturbild, Wilfried Dechau, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt GmbH, Stuttgart München





TEXTS

Screen / Arne Reimann
„Mit der Aufzeichnung von Grenzen in der Darstellung utopischer Projekte sind Grundlagen geschaffen, um einen neuen Ansatz zu wagen: denn gerade Bilder und Modelle bieten die ideale Basis, um einen utopischen Diskurs neu zu entfachen. Der Schwellenwert der räumlichen Darstellung [...] besteht zwischen Unschärfe und Genauigkeit, zwischen ideellen Ausdruck und Berechenbarkeit.“(1)

SCREEN ist eine eigens für das BÜRO DC entwickelte Arbeit von Anne Pöhlmann (geb. 1978). Besucher und Passanten gleichermaßen werden zunächst verwundert sein, denn auf den ersten Blick werden sie nichts sehen, vielleicht werden die Räume renoviert. Von Außen ist lediglich eine mit weißem Papier abgeklebte Fensterscheibe zu erkennen. Einmal eingetreten erwartet der Besucher eine Ausstellung, findet jedoch einen leeren Raum vor.

SCREEN ist die Installation von zwei Fotografien, die auf die Scheibengröße kopiert worden sind. Die Motivseiten zeigen jeweils nach Innen. Für Passanten und Ausstellungsbesucher sind nur die blanken Papieroberflächen sichtbar. Die einzelnen, rasterförmig aufgeteilten „Plakate“ der beiden Bildmotive wurden mit Kleister von innen und außen auf der Schaufensterscheibe montiert. Je nach Tageszeit und Lichtintensität „erscheint“ die Fotografie, beziehungsweise überlagern sich die Motive: eine Ansicht eines öffentlichen Platzes im Pariser Stadtteil Tolbiac (Innen, von Anne Pöhlmann) und das Dokumentationsfoto einer Idealstadtplanung aus den 1960er Jahren (Außen, aus dem Archiv der Künstlerin).

Beide „Entwürfe“ verhandeln gebaute utopische Visionen, denen sich die Künstlerin Anne Pöhlmann mittels des Mediums Fotografie und in Form einer Installation nähert. Inwieweit ist ein realisiertes utopisches System als „geglückt“ zu betrachten; unter welchen Kriterien muss es als gescheitert gelten? Platten- und Hochhausbau markieren dabei Phänomene, die nicht nur die Planungen der Architektur und Stadtplanung Ostdeutschlands der Ära Ulbricht und Honecker dominieren, sondern in ganz Europa, vereinzelt weltweit zu finden sind. Die „Platte“ beinhaltet freilich auch ein soziales Konzept, eine Utopie: günstigen Wohnraum für alle, soziale Gleichheit, bescheidener Individualismus. Bauten, deren Qualitäten heute von ihren Bewohnern eher ignoriert werden.

Das strukturelle Interesse an der Architektur, im Besonderen der 1960er und 70er Jahre, die formale Analyse architektonischer Konzepte, scheint für Anne Pöhlmann eher an Bedeutung verloren zu haben; in gleichem Maße wie die unmittelbare Präsenz des fotographischen Abzuges und dessen Ausstellung. Zwar findet sich die mittelbare Basis ihrer Arbeiten noch in dem Sujet der Architekturfotografie, jedoch überlagern sich deren Aspekte mit formalen Elementen und Techniken der Analyse, Recherche und Archivierung. Anne Pöhlmann sammelt das Material auf ihren Streifzügen durch Metropolen und Städte, über öffentliche Plätze und durch Neubaussiedlungen an der Peripherie der Städte.

In der Ausstellung SCREEN hat sie sich bewußt wieder für die Arbeit mit Schwarz-Weiß-Fotokopien aus dem Copy-Shop entschieden. In früheren Arbeiten hat sie bereits mit Fotokopien gearbeitet, einzelne Bauwerke zu imaginären Stadtgefügen frei auf einer Wand komponiert oder zu kleinformatigeren Collagen assembliert. Für SCREEN exemplifiziert Anne Pöhlmann in besonderer Weise das Prinzip der Erweiterung des Bildträgers, wie es bei einer Wandarbeit oder Collage der Fall ist.

(1) Annett Zinsmeister: Der utopische Plan, in: Annett Zinsmeister (Hg.): Plattenbau oder Die Kunst, Utopie im Baukasten zu warten, Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum, Hagen 2002, S. 92





"Computer Game and ‚Spinning Box" / AP
These two video works belong to a group of 5 videos that were made between 2004 and 2005. The videos are short clips. They are installed either as projections or screened on monitors. They also can be shown as single screening or like in this installation as a group of videos overlaying their different sounds.

The starting point of those videos were large sequences of single photogaphs that were put in order and rendered in an animation programm thus producing a filmlike movement through different urban architectures. They show very banal and generic places e.g. a parking lot, an elevator shaft or a facade of an office building.
Installation: Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, 2005.




"La Dalle" / AP
Video 14min 39s, with sound.
„Urban Spheres“, film screening part of ‚Städtische Bühne’.
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf. 2007.

Video work based on single images that are shown as a kind of slide show with original sound and single narrator voice. "La Dalle" means ‚concrete slab‘ and describes the prefabricated concrete elements that buildings in Beaugrenelle are made of as well as the huge concrete platform from which all the high rise buildings of this quarter raise.

An inhabitant of the quarter talks in a monologue about how the quarter is supposed to be changed in the future and how the inhabitants of Beaugrenelle think and feel about it.




"WOHNZEILE" / AP.
Video 8min 32sec, loop with sound.
Show at Galerie Clages, Köln 2007.

The title of this work is the name of an apartment building in Dresden, Germany. It was built in the 1960s and still exists even if the original conditions that are shown in the video don‘t exist any longer. The "WOHNZEILE" was supposed to be the longest apartment building of the former DDR being 240m long.

The video is based on a large sequence of single images that produce a movement through the endless and monotonous corridors of the building. The grid structure of the architecture becomes the rythm of the movement in the video.




"Walkthrough" / AP
Video black and white 8 min 2sec.
Sound: Andy Thoma.

The video "Walkthrough" shows a movement through a pedestrian tunnel. This tunnel is not used anymore and exists only as a ruinous structure - even if the lights are still working. But parts of its system have been closed. Skater and graffiti people like to go there and use it for their purposes.

The tunnel was built in the 1960s when people thought that the city would grow more and so until today its scale doesn‘t fit to the urban environnement around. Today it looks like the labyrinthic architectures in computer games.




"Sequels" / AP
Inkjet prints and b/w plots. Floor piece made of black vinyl letters.
Clages Galerie, Cologne, 2007.

Installation with 4 sequences of black and white prints and 1 floor piece consisting of vinyl letters. The sequences show small filmic movements rather then photographic series. The differences between the images in one sequence are small changes of perspective. Two sequences are glossy photographic prints. The other two sequences are b/w plots on paper that architects use for their maps and plans. These 2 are glued onto the wall like posters. All sequences show places and architectures that belong to the same urban development and they have another thing in common: they are leftover structures that are not in use anymore.

The floor piece is called ‚Not a house‘ and it reads like this:

Kein Haus - eher eine Struktur.
Not a house - more a structure.
Ce n‘est pas une maison - plutôt une structure.
Non è una casa - piuttosto una struttura.

It is meant to be the caption of an image or a sequence of images that is not shown.




"Triennale di Milano, 1968" / AP
Series of 17 pigment prints.
48 cm x 33 cm.
‚New Talents Biennale‘ Cologne, 2008 und NAK Auktion 2008.

This work consists of 17 reproductions that show catalogue pages of the 14.Triennale di Milano which happend in 1968. The single catalogue pages were photographed using flashlight that produced reflections on the paper. The reflections appear at different spots of the images - being sometimes almost invisible. The work is an examination of the design and architecture show in 1968 which stood out with its experimental presentations. Some of the catalogue images rather look like film stills or documentations of an art show. Thinking about how iconic the year 1968 turned out to be the 14th Triennale di Milano seems to still influence artistic production nowadays.




"Building Beyond Success" / The super art historian AH, London Jan. 2009
Anne Pöhlmann und Diango Hernández
Slide projection of 80 original slides, sound from record player and single record, equalizer, lamp, carpet tiles and printed banner.
Galerie Clages, Cologne 2009.

Welcome crisis! Welcome, because we need you, welcome because we love you and because we can‘t live without you. Using the right melody this can even be a nice song, a song that we could play to celebrate the "grand global crisis" that occupies the world today, crisis that everyday hits our ways and is glamorously announced in the news by beautiful lips and fresh lighted make up faces. Looking to Twiggy Lawson pictures from the sixties (the first well known super model) we can see what later became an ideal of beauty, a new standard of sexiness, a face and a body that could well and fast sell a new way of living.

A sharp and androgynous figure with bright eyes and fleshy red lips could also be an appropriate description of the Ferrari Testarossa, the car that went into production in the mid eighties and later became a super status symbol. The idea of the super models, super status symbols, super heroes and super stars - Anne Pöhlmann and Diango Hernández see it in a more general and complex way. They are canons that shaped for years the mentality of the western society but the artists are more interested in the deconstruction of these stereotypes, their decline that is produced today by the economical crisis.

If we follow their thoughts we could assume that as a result of having super economic models, super wars, super cars, super life, super standards et cetera - we are experiencing right now a super crisis. Which in a way makes us happy, because at least what we have is a super crisis and not only another banal little capitalist depression.




"REVUES" / AP
-Installation ‚REVUES‘, 2009, video projection of 10 still images and black satin waterfall curtain.
-Wall collages "Ne craquez pas" and "Portrait de Delphine", 2009.
Galerie Clages, Cologne 2009.

We live in fantasy worlds. Brought to us by advertising on TV or in magazines, on bill boards and in the internet. This is nothing new. Advertising has been creating ideal worlds, images and fantasies for longer than we think and remember. It has built up its very own vocabulary - as well as its own image language. Even if advertisement campaigns today are meant more then ever to catch up with real life and try to talk authenticity - the authentic people in the ads and commercials still look amazingly attractive in their ‘real’ made-up world.

Longing for the things that we don’t have yet has become a huge part of our daily obsessions. We want to drive the amazing new car from the TV commercial, we want to dress like the girl in the photo internet blog or to have a hair cut like this famous actress. It doesn’t mean we always get what we are longing for, but for this little moment of imagination and dreaming we see ourselves living in another world, identifying with another live – a fantasy place where we are just a happier version of our self. For doing so people reflect their own image - do I look attractive? How successful am I doing in my job? We picture a more successful career and a more perfect relationship as well as a flawlessly attractive body in our fantasy.

Lifestyle magazines always did deliver the ideas and images for our longing to live a more fabulous life. Next to the products in ads they communicate a whole universe of lifestyle fantasies and illustrate them with articles and images. They show us how it could be. The most powerful images can be found on the cover of a magazine. Women’s faces, portrait pictures, promising and seductive. There is no way around them. No magazine can sell withhout because we understand what their promise is – the world of entertainment, pop and glamour that lets us forget and takes us out of our daily worries. The individual portrait behind those cover faces is missing - each portrait shows another/same façade again and each new issue marks another month or week with a new face – the face from before is already history.

And here again we are happy to open another magazine and in the very moment doing so we already have forgotten the beautifully shining face of the cover girl looking at us and right away we indulge the world that we have become to love and long for. It is seducing us on purpose, working the clichés, taking us in - we all know, but we don’t care.