Limes Mundi

Reversing the View

Kurt Buchwald

As a maker of images and actions, Kurt Buchwald adopted a sociocritical approach early on that addressed both the mechanisms of image production and image perception and the effects of photography, and inquired into these in critical and ironic ways. Along with the series Im Kreis der Wahrnehmung (In the Circle of Perception, 2002–11) and Im Kasten (In the Box, 2012), the exhibition includes for the first time his Kippbilder (Bistable Images, 2013), a more recent body of work.

Along with Buchwald’s approach to cropping, concealment, and lighting, the body photographed in the pipe or box becomes its own obstacle. Factoring into the work are the aspects of performance, of the apparatus, and the ensuing consequences. Buchwald photographed an object through a pipe or used a box reminiscent of a proscenium stage, and in doing so, he carries both viewer and device to perceptual limits. The artist turns the photographic principle upside-down, disguises the center, hides the frame, or expands the apparatus.