Artiklar av Thyra Schmidt

With essays by Anne Rodler and Thomas W. Rieger.
German / English.
Published in August 2010 by extra verlag, Berlin.
ISBN 978-3-938370-42-1


52 pages, 29,5 x 22 cm, Softcover
Layout: Thyra Schmidt

Available at:
http://www.extraverlag.de
http://www.extraverlag.de/titel/036_schmidt.html

Preview at:
http://issuu.com/thyra.schmidt/docs/catalog2

Short extracts of the essays are already posted in this weblog.

Auszug aus:
„Verstehendes Sehen – Eine Übung vor Originalen"
von Thomas W. Rieger


(5) „Meine Liebe steht Dir."

Zur Markveien gelangt man am besten quer durch Grünerløkka – den Prenzlauer Berg von Oslo. Das Café Mir im Lufthavn öffnet leider erst am späten Nachmittag. Markveien Frisør und Markveien Kiosk müssen sich das Zitat nach Novalis teilen. Gütlich. Kryptisch. The Harder You Look The Harder You Look. Wenige von Novalis’ Zeitgenossen haben derart vehement nach einer Zusammenschau von Poesie, Künsten und Naturwissenschaften gestrebt. Romantische Universalpoesie. Erleben und Erdichten sind eins.
Man nimmt an, die Prosa sei der Realität näher als die Poesie. Ich halte
das für einen Irrtum. Eichendorffs „Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen“. Novalis’ Wünschelrute weist den Weg in eine höhere Wirklichkeit. Reality is only in our dreams. A Particular Emotion Transmitted Telepathically. Im Hause residiert Sound of Mu. Open Mike. Erinnert an Arlene’s Grocery. Für Bands steht eine komplette Bühne zur Verfügung, die Abendeinnahmen gehen komplett an die Musiker. Keine Abzüge. Außerdem gibt’s Kunstausstellungen, Buchlesungen und ein fiktives Kasino. Synästhetik? Na, wie auch immer.


(English)
Fortsätt läsa "Novalis in Grünerlokka (Station No 5)" »

Zwischen Intimität und Öffentlichkeit
Zu Thyra Schmidts Installation I can’t just be nowhere (...)
von Anne Rodler

Mit einer Fotografie von Thyra Schmidt verhält es sich wie mit einem unauffälligen und doch allerorts vorhandenen Alltagsgegenstand, den jeder kennt: dem Spiegel. Schaut man hinein, glaubt man, die Wirklichkeit scheine einem entgegen. Doch wie wirklich ist die Wirklichkeit dieser spiegelnden Oberfläche? Und inwieweit hängt sie von der Wahrnehmung des Subjekts ab, von dessen Verfassung und Perspektive?
Der Betrachter überprüft seine Erscheinung stets in einem flüchtigen Augenblick und befragt sich selbst – eine Momentaufnahme.

Fortsätt läsa "Essay von Anne Rodler (Auszug)" »

Realität ist für mich etwas sehr Relatives. Meine Arbeiten brauchen nicht die wirkliche Reaktion oder Einbeziehung des Publikums – es genügt die Vorstellung, dass es ein Publikum gibt.
Wenn ich Arbeiten über einen gewissen Zeitraum im öffentlichen Raum installiere, kann ich mit Sicherheit davon ausgehen, dass diese von jemandem gesehen werden. Aber die Arbeiten ändern sich dadurch nicht.
(...)

Fortsätt läsa "Und das Publikum?" »

Wie in einer Filmmontage verschmelzen in meiner Vorstellung die von Astrid beschriebenen Passagen aus dem Roman von J. Fosse mit den montierten Plakaten im Osloer Stadtraum. Jedoch tritt diese Vorstellung erst jetzt bei mir ein. Durch mein stetiges Verarbeiten fremder „Textbausteine“ ist mir oftmals
ihr ursprünglicher Kontext nicht mehr exakt bewusst. Insofern sind die Zitate bereits eng mit mir verknüpft, so eng, dass ich sie für meine Eigenen halten kann.

In meinen Fotografien sind immer nur Personen aus meinem Bekanntenkreis abgebildet. Es mag paradox klingen, aber privates Material macht es mir leichter, abstrakter damit zu arbeiten. Wenn ich die abgebildeten Personen kenne, kann ich mit dem Material unbefangener umgehen, zum Beispiel komme ich nicht in die Verlegenheit, ein für die jeweilige Person charakteristisches Portrait zu erstellen; Bilder von Personen, die mir nicht bekannt sind, hemmen mich, ich kann sie nicht benutzen.
(...)

Fortsätt läsa "Persönlich?" »

15. Astrid Gallinat: Could you in generally imagine to do a comparable project in a similar shape again in another city?

Thyra Schmidt: A similar project in another city, I can well imagine, but it should not necessarily be a project with pictures and text placards on house walls; but it would still be a work that would deal in a certain form with intimacy in the public media. Here for conceivable for me is a game with various identities, which now only takes place in an approach in my work, in the form of the handwritten texts.
Ultimately, the question is asked, when and how a temporary project in public space is localized in the context of art. While it takes place, it is always also confronted with a crowd of people not interested in art; it's a completely different situation than a museum visit.
Basically, in retrospect something is being discussed which do not exists any more, but which past form of exhibition still remains the basic of the work.

the whole interview (in German):
"interview on artificialis"

14. Astrid Gallinat: To what extent do you have selected the "pictures" especially for the audience in Oslo, or would they work similarly in another city such as Milan, as you were just there?

Thyra Schmidt: These images could also work in another town, but not in every country, in which case I would certainly choose other images.
Originally I wanted to show more pictures of landscapes in Oslo, which I soon abandoned in view of the impressive nature of Norway. The text- images would change in another language too.

8. Astrid Gallinat: Even though there are no discords for you your work is somehow in contrast to our viewing habits, as we usually see smooth advertising in public buildings.
In this sense Markveien 58 (Station No. 5) "My love fits you!" is mounted above a hairdressing salon. Are your works best understood as "anti-advertising"?



Thyra Schmidt: No, as ”anti-advertising" I do not understand them, then I would have to advertise against a product. In this case, it was just humour.

7. Astrid Gallinat: As you write in the blog the photographs and texts are to consider independently from each other. Each work is an image for itself. Nevertheless sometimes they seem to fit together. For example at the Goethe-Institut, Grønland 16 (Station No. 1) "The perspiration pearled over his wonderful mouth, which he held tightly shut." The photo shows two men while bathing in the pool the heat and with it the sweat is almost tangible. However, here the pictures and the text are not next to each other.
At the same time some texts seem to be like stumbling blocks. For example "But I had nothing to tell him. That I longed for him." at GlasMagasinet, Stortorvet 9/Torggata (Station No. 2). Did you consciously intend to create disharmony?

Fortsätt läsa "Interview, question 7/15" »

2. Astrid Gallinat: The texts are quotations from writers, sometimes slightly modified by you. Which are these writers and why did you cite them?

Thyra Schmidt: Well, I have to explain this more in detail: With the combination of text and image I have been working since 2003; I started with "striking" image compositions, illusionist photo- montages consisting of portraits, landscapes and already privately seeming image-immanent text phrases. Out of it several groups of works developed for me, in which I work in parallel to today and which I always put in other contexts.
Basically, it is the ingredients of my montages, except that I intensify them in each series. So to speak inevitably, a series of text fragments was grown, on which I work since 2007. In opposite of the text phrases of my montages, the texts have to work now as independent images for me, both content and formal. This content requires a degree of narrativity, although I do not intend to tell a story. Fortsätt läsa "Interview, question 2/15" »

11. Astrid Gallinat: Although the works seem to be very intimate they stand in stark contrast to the baring of soul which is often offered in talk shows. Isn't this silence also a contrast to the usual "noise" in the public space which in the end has the effect of an eye catcher?

Thyra Schmidt: As already described in my first answer, I try to treat intimate subjects with a certain dignity. This may be the reason why the works might be too mysterious or veiled for some viewers. In any case, it is something different than the way as in our society in the public media is handled with so-called privacy. As an artist I am interested in some phenomena in my time, but I do not intend to illustrate this. Ultimately, for me art is a language of form, even if I'm approaching this form of substantive issues.


the whole interview (in German):
"interview on artificialis"

5. Astrid Gallinat: In 2007 in Eisenhüttenstadt (and 2008 in Dunaujvaros, Hungary) you have already exhibited fragments of texts but this was in a completely different shape (interior, manuscripts, smaller format). Some of the texts were again represented in Oslo. Do the texts change for you if they are in a different context?

Thyra Schmidt: In each of both exhibitions around 40 or 50 of these texts hung close to each other, there was a tight net of relations between the lines.

In Oslo, however, each text was in conjunction with the city outside, where it was placed or additionally in conjunction with an image. The statement here is for me completely different.


views of exhibit in Eisenhüttenstadt

1. Astrid Gallinat: Until early November you have been with your project “I can't just be nowhere” in Oslo. After a stopover in Düsseldorf you went straight to Milan for another project with FEHLSTELLE. You seem constantly to be somewhere. Is the title of your work in Oslo a personal statement? How did you get to this title?

Thyra Schmidt: I have taken the title from "Melancholia" by the Norwegian author Jon Fosse, the original sentence was: "... somewhere I have to be and I can’t just be nowhere..."
The works in my Oslo-project treat private topics, consciously cryptic placed in the public space. Thus for me the title "I can’t just be nowhere“ relates to something intimate, which seeks its place without losing its dignity.

If I refer the title to my travels, the more likely would be "I can be everywhere"...

The whole interview between the art historian Astrid Gallinat (Vallauris, France) and me is readable in German on the website of Artificialis, an association for art exhibits and projects.

"interview on artificialis"

Some parts of the interview will be posted in this blog.
(Not in order of the interview).

10. Astrid Gallinat: „I can't just be nowhere“ seems to me as an oversized poetry book or even as a diary that is flipped open on the streets of Oslo. Can you do something with this comparison or do you understand the project completely different?

Thyra Schmidt: I find this comparison very nice. It sounds so sentimental that you may feel it even as embarrassing ... and that's what I like.
But although I associate with „diary“ something autobiographic what I put in my work more in question.

følte at jeg streifet borti noen som jeg straks kjente igjen, selv om jeg aldri hadde sett ham
felt touched by someone whom I immediately recognized, though I had never seen him before