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Sandstorm

2003 - 2009

Sandstorm 6 40x30cm 2007

Sandstorm 1 78x102cm 2003

Sandstorm 2 78x102cm 2003

Sandstorm 3 78x102cm 2003

Sandstorm 4 78x102cm 2003

Sandstorm 16 36x36cm 2005

Sandstorm 22 196x196cm 2005

Sandstorm 33 40x30cm 2009

Sandstorm 27 84x76cm 2005

Sandstorm 19 40x46cm 2007

Sandstorm 26 169x169cm 2007

In the eyes of Jörg Madlener, the world is diffused, Humans and landscapes are hidden as existing behind a veil. What comes to life is a world –encompassing sfumato. Painting refuses the contour and demonstrates the limits of seeing. It reflects the impossibility o fixing the identity of what is in front of you.

These epistemological questions for Madlener have a concrete relation to the history of our time. The title of the show immediately conjures up the Iraq war, In front of this background the veiled faces with closed eyes appear as corpses –

Victims of war whose individual traits re immediately forgotten.

The Iraq war among others has entered history because it plays well in the media: carefully managed televised sequences are hiding a brutal reality. In this way Madlener’s pictorial reflections about the inherent limits of seeing mimic the politically motivated obfuscation; reality is covered in pigment. This sandstorm is one that challenges the viewer to confront a world veiled with blindness and death.

Dr. Peter Joch, Direktor Kunsthalle Darmstadt

Tenebrae

2002 - 2004