Christoph Faulhaber: Jedes Bild ist ein leeres Bild (Every Picture is an Empty Picture)

On view 1 – 30 November 2014

Jedes Bild ist ein leeres Bild (65:10 min, 2014) documents the recalcitrant actions of an “artist under suspicion of terrorist activities,” as an art magazine recently described Faulhaber. He reworks the documentary footage of his actions using a program of the video game Grand Theft Auto, which is designed to create video clips. The avatar Niko Bellic, created by the game’s manufacturer, operates as the artist’s alter ego, continually reflecting and commenting upon the events.

“(Faulhaber’s) art is (...) provocative, his performances have been interrupted by the police, he’s under surveillance by the FBI and Homeland Security, and an artist’s grant has already been revoked. Among his most spectacular projects were the 2005 founding of the firm ‘Mister Security,’ which took on the task of monitoring public space from the public. After Faulhaber was prohibited from photographing an American embassy, he turned the tables around and guarded the embassy from being photographed by the public. He then, in turn, documented this action in photographs that he subsequently exhibited at the documenta 12 – without an official invitation, of course – which authorities quickly put an end to. Later, while travelling to the USA on a legal visa as a German grantee, he was interrogated, removed from the list of grantees, and forced to leave the country. Faulhaber accepts these reprisals and even regards them as part of his work, something one can only fully understand when one delves into this mix of conceptual, political, social, and theoretic approaches.” (www.art-magazin.de/kunst/66869/christoph_faulhaber_starter)

Christoph Faulhaber (*June 17, 1972 in Osnabrück) is a Hamburg-based artist, performer, filmmaker, and author.