Albrecht Schäfer
The “world” 9.11.1989, Installation, paper object, 2009
Albrecht Schäfer’s installation consists of two parts: a paper ball that is made out of the German newspaper »Die Welt« (The World) from November 9, 1989, and a photo showing a detail from Hotel Dajti. Albrecht Schäfer took it during his visit to Tirana in summer 2009: in the ballroom he found small clusters of candelabra lying on the floor, fragmented and broken. People looking for scrap metal probably left those decorations behind while they were taking those that originally illuminated this representative space. The photo will be fixed in the door of the wardrobe in the frame that originally might have been a place for photos or for a mirror. The »globe« compresses history and reporting into the smallest space possible, beside fragments of text only the date is written as a turning point in public memory. The photo,simply documentating, seems to show an artistic installation (Albrecht Schäfer himself works with defragmentated luminaries sometimes), but by placing it in the wardrobe it is freed from that context and turns into a personal souvenir.
Albrecht Schäfer
Born in 1967 in Stuttgart, West-Germany.
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany.
Education:
Studied at the Braunschweig School of Art and Design,
the Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, the
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.
Selected solo exhibitions:
2010 Museum Morsbroich Leverkusen 2008 Winds
and Windings ››› KW Institute for Contemporary Art
Berlin 2007 Gallery Kamm, Berlin ››› Neuer Aachener
Kunstverein ››› H.W. & J. Hector Kunstpreis, Kunsthalle
Mannheim 2006 Frisch-zelle_04, Kunstmuseum
Stuttgart 2003 Malevich Museum Biberachn ››› artists
space, New York.
Selected group exhibitions:
2008 He hasn’t been seen twice by anyone, Künstlerhaus
Bremen ››› Zeitblick. 1998–2008, Martin-Gropius-
Bau, Berlin ››› Der Blinde Fleck, Neue Gesellschaft für
Bildende Kunst, Berlin ››› 5 minutes later, KW Institute for
contemporary art, Berlin 2007 The word in art, MART,
Rovereto 2006 Anstoß Berlin – art makes world, Haus
am Waldsee, Berlin ››› object à part, La Galerie, Centre
d’art contemporaine, Noisy-le-Sec ››› ideal city – invisible
city, Zamosc and Potsdam ››› postmodellismus, Bergen
Kunsthall
Grants / Awards / Residencies
2006 Villa Aurora Los Angeles, H.W. & J. Hector Art
Award (1. Prize) Kunsthalle Mannheim
2005 Kunstfonds Bonn 2000 Berlin Senat
