Claudia Dorninger-Lehner & Rob Bensky
Artist residency Prager Fotoschule
Claudia Dorninger-Lehner
The work "Vier Sekunden Gegenwart" features virtually abstract images that reveal a striking linear rhythm - similar to an architect's first tentative sketches endeavouring to mould a rough mass from a room and to give shape to fleeting ideas. The reduced yet correlated colouring breaks with the slightly futuristic character of the photographs. The photographer's research not only reflects the bustle of the zeitgeist but also manifests the dynamism of today's major cities.
Transforming these features into the opposite - switching from an urban to a rural setting, from a contemporary to a historical form language - constitutes an expansion of the project not only in terms of content, but undoubtedly also in terms of style. New questions will arise, regarding the pictorial (romantic?) element in landscape portrayals... New approaches to art history trends will open up, parallels with other creative disciplines will impose themselves...
Rob Bensky
The question concerning the objectivity of the images makes for a hugely exciting story. Added to this are observations regarding exhibits in museums - objects that given their purpose and the course of history can be anything but neutral - and the critical questioning of communication strategies, as well as the interesting analysis of the perception of the observer.
An earlier project, "Aufgelöst", already saw Rob Bensky place his interest in objects in a space-time context, thus allowing for a narrative dimension.
The comparison of different manners of representation in exhibition contexts between Clervaux and Dresden lies at the heart of the research of his artist residency. With this in mind, initial contacts can be established with the museum on a local level.
A second idea fundamentally focuses on the same duality: objectivity - subjectivity. On the one hand, the image composition is governed by chance and determined by a machine, on the other hand its seemingly documentary nature is once again overridden by the meaning of "I was here" - a purely subjective manifest. The significance assigned to chance remains to be explored in Clervaux in September.