Lost Landscapes / 2023

Lost Landscapes (2023) is a series of digitally manipulated photographic animations, where the logos of extractive companies operating in the North, such as the energy company Vattenfall and mining companies LKAB and Kaunis Mining, are mirrored in the landscapes they exploit. Trembling like mirages, the iconic mountainscapes – often talked about as “Europe’s last wilderness”– appear to be mere empty shells, hollowed out from within and close to collapse. The photos were shoot by the artist in the Sweden Arctic region in 2022 during the residency at Boden, Art Hall “Havremagasinet”.

“Lost Landscapes – After Monoculture” / curator Lisa Rosendhal / Communal Gallery weisser elefant / 2023 / Berlin

Video Links:

4 K, around 1 min – in loop

Solid Landscapes / 2022

In the video “Solid Landscapes”, the artist “spells out” the never-ending growth of usable and productive (anti-)landscapes by reproducing and multiplying evidence of a dramatic change that is occurring in an incremental manner around the world. It is an allegory of societal processes that follow one another at an ever faster pace, primarily due to the dynamics of economic and human population growth, technological advances and the ever-increasing flood of information. The flight over monocultures of production begins with the ready-made components and goes deep into the pits where raw materials are mined to produce commodities. The viewer sees from a bird’s-eye perspective an image that may be a piece of Earth, but one cannot be sure whether it is reality, or merely a bad futuristic vision.

Solid Landscapes / video & animation / 19.04min. / 4 K / 2022 / Video still

“Solid Landscapes” at NON Berlin / co Meinblau / Berlin / 2022

“Solid Landscapes” at communal gallery weisser elefant / Berlin / 2023

Video trailer

The video was recorded in Germany and Sweden thanks to Neustart Kultur / Stiftung Kunstfonds, Lapland Air, IASPIS, Konsthall Havremagasinet / Boden / Sweden.

Few thoughts about the “Landscape” term.

The term “landscape” has many meanings; the word sometimes refers to a piece of land, or a part of the earth’s surface, to the cultivation of the soil, or a unit of use or a piece of land (e.g. garden landscape).
But it is also used to talk about sounds, thoughts, memories; so-called soundscapes, mindscapes etc. Many of the world’s landscapes have changed dramatically in recent decades. Social processes follow each other faster and faster, which is mainly due to the dynamics of economic growth, technological achievements and the constantly growing flood of information.
Some future changes will certainly surprise us, others can already be foreseen – the tendencies are clearly recognisable. An English-derived term that can be applied to industrial or commercial landscapes is “powerlandscape”; a landscape in which action is taken according to certain norms and where the rules, responsibilities and property rights are strictly defined.
My project deals in an artistic way with the unbridled growth of “powerlandscapes”, and the imagination of the future’s infinite, area-wide “powerlandscape”.

2021

#dailynotes 2021 #corona #summer

“2021”_02 / Print on fine art photo paper / 30 x 23 cm / 2021

“2021”_03 / Print on fine art photo paper / 30 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_04 / Print on fine art photo paper / 30 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_05 / Print on fine art photo paper / 25 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_06 / Print on fine art photo paper / 30 x 20 cm / 2021

“2021”_07 / Print on fine art photo paper / 20 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_08 / Print on fine art photo paper / 20 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_09 / Print on fine art photo paper / 20 x 33 cm / 2021

“2021”_10 / Print on fine art photo paper / 20 x 33 cm / 2021

“2021”_11 / Print on fine art photo paper / 20 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_12 / Print on fine art photo paper / 20 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_13 / Print on fine art photo paper / 20 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_14 / Print on fine art photo paper / 25 x 30 cm / 2021

“2021”_15 / Print on fine art photo paper / 25 x 33 cm / 2021

Wund[er}mal / 2020

In my photo series “ Wund[er]maI” I photographed an area of lignite extraction in east Germany called Braunkohle Revier Lausitz. It was the biggest lignite extraction place in whole Europe during the DDR times. Also today we are looking on hectares dry, moon – like landscapes. Since more than 100 years many villages disappeared, because of the exploration. Pitted, utilised landscape remind us about the domination of human being, the scale and kind of our activities on planet Earth.

Wund[er]mal 01 / Photocollage / 200 x 300 cm / 2020

Wund[er]mal 02 / Photocollage / 200 x 300 cm / 2020

Wund[er]mal 03 / Photocollage / 200 x 300 cm / 2020

Wund[er]mal 04 / Photocollage / 200 x 300 cm / 2020

Wund[er]mal 01 & Wund[er]mal 04 / Berlin U – Bahnhof Kurfürstendamm / 2021

Wund[er]mal 04 & Wund[er]mal 01 / Berlin U – Bahnhof Kurfürstendamm / 2021

Wund[er]mal – a photo exhibition by Marcelina Wellmer at the underground station Kurfürstendamm U9 during the Berlin Art Week 2021

A Project in collaboration with berlinerpool. Supported by Sonderförderprogramm 20/21 NEUSTART KULTUR and Stiftung Kunstfonds. With the kind support of Digitales Bildarchiv des Sorbischen Instituts and Wall GmbH.

PIB Berlin wrote:

“Marcelina Wellmer’s project Wund[er]mal is a photographic journey to open-pit coal mines in the Lausitz region. Due to decades of extraction, many villages, farmland and forests have disappeared; further settlements are to make way, despite the planned exit. To the present landscapes photographed by the artist, she added motifs from the Sorbian photo archive. They show people who belonged to the Sorbian minority; the area was their home. The project reflects history in a poetic way, at the same time it warns of our future actions: it shows the consequences of social and cultural contexts and the limits of the exploitation of nature.”

PRIVAT / 2021

The photo series “Private View” deals with the fixed idea of finding real, wild nature and experiencing it up close. This longing became even stronger in Corona times – we were on the run from civilisation, which was suddenly too confining. However, in the 2.0 world, the desire turns out to be a post-romantic fantasy. Instead of untouched wilderness, we encounter cultivated landscapes and a nature that has long since been taken over. It belongs to a company, a private person, or “the city”.

Can nature have an “owner” at all? Is this concept ethically and philosophically viable? I asked myself these questions on my Apennine tour, in the middle of the sold-out Carrara Mountains, whose marble powder is in our toothpaste.

“Privat” / Print on baryt photo paper / 92 x 63 cm / 2021

“Privat” / Print on Photo baryt photo paper / 2 x 92 x 63 cm / 2021

“Privat” exhibition view / Photos + Installation /Ortstermin Festival / Nord Gallery&Kunstverein Tiergarten / Berlin / 2021

“Privat” exhibition view / Photos + Installation / Ortstermin Festival / Nord Gallery&Kunstverein Tiergarten / Berlin / 2021

P R I V A T –

oder vom Ruf der Berge.

Text: Harald F. Theiss | Kurator | Kunsthistoriker

Fragmentarische Gedanken zu den Fotocollagen von Marcelina Wellmer.

Den Berg zum Antworten zu bringen, ist nicht leicht. Welche Antwort bekommen wir auf den Ruf von abgetragenen Bergen? Möglicherweise bleibt nur noch ein schwacher Nachhall aus der italienischen Alpenlandschaft um Carrara übrig. Die brüchigen Wände, die den Schall zurückwerfen, verschwinden – es wird stiller und das Echo verstummt im leeren Klangraum der Berge. Über das Verschwinden von Landschaften und damit realer Wirklichkeit erzählen die bereits kulissenhaft wirkenden Landschaftsfotografien von Marcelina Wellmer und verstärken über künstlerische Mittel den Eingriff und Einfluss des Menschen in die Landschaft. Er hat sie seit Jahrhunderten geformt und verformt. Es hat im Laufe der Zeit so etwas wie eine Unordnung stattgefunden. Im Zuge der Industrialisierung sind neue Landschaften mit unbekannten Folgen entstanden und damit in der Gegenwart ein wachsendes Bewusstsein und der Wunsch nach Neugestaltung.

Wir kennen aus der Architektur- und Kunstgeschichte das edle weiße Gold, wie der Marmor genannt wird, aber denken dabei weniger an den brachialen Abbau der leuchtenden Berglandschaften in Italien, aus deren Wänden das Rohmaterial herausgetrennt wird.

Entstanden ist das Gestein vor 30 Millionen Jahren, als sich die Kontinentalplatten von Afrika und Europa aufeinander zubewegten und sich zu den Apuanischen Alpen im Nordwesten der Toskana auftürmten. Mit ihren wiederum künstlerischen und fast künstlich anmutenden Landschaftskonstruktionen geht die Künstlerin zurück an den Ursprung der Mythen und Schöpfung – in einem geschützten Raum werden Fragen nicht nur nach der Bilderwirklichkeit gestellt, sondern auch nach dem Verhältnis Mensch und Natur, deren Nutzung und den unvorhersehbaren Folgen dieser Einwirkung. Die skulpturalen Bergfragmente wirken in Wellmers Darstellungen wie geformte Reste. In der Betrachtung beginnen sie sich in der Vorstellung mit etwas danach zu verwischen. Die jahrtausendealten Gesteinsschichten, in denen die Zeit eingeschrieben ist, bröckeln. Was bleibt sind andere Skulpturen und Geschichte(n) der Erinnerung. Wellmers manipulierte Bilder „beschreiben“ und dokumentieren gleichzeitig den sich ständig verändernden Zustand der Berge. Wir sehen auf den großformatigen Fotografien temporäre Bergformen, die sich in naher Zukunft auflösen werden: Das Zeitliche und Vergängliche sind festgehalten. Über eine erweiterte subjektive Landschaftsfotografie werden so Varianten von Transformationsprozessen untersucht und sichtbar gemacht.

Auf der Suche nach zukunftsorientierten Entwürfen bedienen sich die Künstlerinnen und Künstler vielschichtiger Methoden und Medien. Walter Benjamin verwies bereits 1936 in seinem Aufsatz Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit auf den Wandel der Rezeption von Kunst, vor allem durch die Entwicklung der Fotografie und des Films und einer damit veränderten Abbildung von Wirklichkeit, die andere kollektive Wahrnehmungerlebnisse erlaubt. Waren es zunächst Bilder, die den Fortschritt dokumentierten, die Konstruktion von Landschaft und damit die Modernisierung der Gesellschaft, reagieren die nachfolgenden Generationen differenzierter auf ihre Umgebung. Wellmer „wandert“ mit ihrem kritischen Blick über die Ränder des Dokumentarischen hinaus und öffnet gleichzeitig die noch unsichtbaren Resonanzräume mit unvorhersehbaren Folgen. Ihre Fotografien stehen in der Tradition der skeptischen Landschaft, die sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten innerhalb der „New Topographics“ zu einem eigenen kritischen und spekulativen Genre entwickelt hat.

Über eine Ästhetisierung der Bilder rückt die Landschaft wieder verstärkt in unser Bewusstsein. Die Grenzen des Dokumentarischen sind aufgehoben. Auf diese Weise entstehen neue Zusammenhänge. Mit künstlerischen Eingriffen wird auf Veränderungsprozesse hingewiesen. Es entstehen fiktionale und surreale Welten, die zum Denken auffordern. Aber finden sich in den „manipulierten“ Geografien auch die Indizien für gesellschaftliche und ökonomische Transformationsprozesse?

In den Fotocollagen von Marcelina Wellmer schon. Sie sind kein Zustandsbericht, eher ein Kommentar, sie reflektieren, verweisen und befragen vielmehr das wankende Verhältnis von Mensch – Natur – Ökonomie. Sie können als potenzielles Merkmal für Veränderung und als Aufforderung, aus einem Konfliktterrain und von der Landschaft zu lernen, betrachtet werden. Auch weil die italienischen Alpenlandschaften inzwischen längst nicht mehr nur in privaten Händen einheimischer Unternehmen liegen.

Ausstellungen öffnen fiktionale Schutzräume, in denen in der Realität mittels ästhetischer Konzepte und mit (fotografischen) Bildern, andere Wahrnehmungsprozessen in Gang gesetzt werden, die gleichzeitig einen Appell zum Handeln „formulieren“. Die Veränderungen der Natur und Landschaft sind in der Öffentlichkeit präsenter den je. Aber reichen für deren Wandel nach ihrer selbstverständlichen Aneignung die vielschichtigen Beobachtungen und Protokolle, um zu mehr Bewusstsein über das Dasein anzuregen – um auch künftig die Stimme des Berges zu hören?

Porous / 2020 -2022

The work “Porous” merges parts of the city with organic matter and remnants of technology. This melt overgrows architecture and familiar urban elements. Like today’s garbage that all too often comes into contact with nature to decompose there, so the world is taken by the “Porous” – the unhealthy hybrid of nature and waste. Astonishment and irritation, inappropriate and inexplicable.

Street object 01 / plants and electronic / 40 x 30 x 30 / 2022

Street object 02 / plants and electronic / 40 x 100 x 30 / 2022

Street object 02 (fragment) / plants and electronic /

Street object 02 / plants and electronic / 40 x 100 x 30 / 2022

“Porous” / Exhibition view / NON Berlin / c/o Meinblau / Berlin 2022

“Porous – Woodpecker ” / Exhibition view / NON Berlin / c/o Meinblau / Berlin 2022

“Porous” / Exhibition view / NON Berlin / c/o Meinblau / Berlin 2022

Project +49 157 362 961 96 / 2018

2D plotter, contract microphones, speakers, pen, paper, sms, DIY control box (arduino, mix of program languages). 2017-2018

The Project +49 157 362 961 96 (2017) by Marcelina Wellmer is an interactive installation operating within the complex environment of telematic and mobile communication, on the verge of generative art and e-literature, with some features of a kinetic sound-sculpture. Sending a text message to the provided phone number initiates data processing, while the customised software and plotter hardware turn each SMS into a line of a manuscript. The outcome of the plotter’s movement imitates a human handwriting, although the written contents is neither imitated, nor artificial. It is an upshot of participants’ voluntary contribution. While the collaboratively created text as a whole, is an outcome of a random flow of messages, the process reveals the hidden curriculum of turning a raw thought into a coherent verbal statement. During the writing process, the plotter emits sound, reminding of the computer-mediated communication (CMC) taking place. Operating within the given affordances, it evokes not an artificial, but rather a collective intelligence contributed by both human and software-based actants. Although the idea may seem to reach back to the pioneering experiments in cyberarts, there is a contemporary approach of critical engineering and analysis of a creative process. While it examines the human-computer interactivity (HCI) paradigm, the project is focused on re-inventing rudiments of communication process through reinterpreting technology by questioning its primary characteristics.
*Ewa Wojtowicz, media art researcher and professor at University of Arts in Poznan/Poland

2D plotter, contract microphones, speakers, pen, paper, sms, DIY control box (arduino, mix of program languages). 2017-2018

Examples of sent and automatically printed messages

2D plotter, contract microphones, speakers, pen, paper, sms, DIY control box (arduino, mix of program languages). 2017-2018

RGB / 2011

14 rgb01web

RGB 01 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

rgb4web

RGB 02 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

rgb02web

RGB 03 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

rgb3web

RGB 04 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

rgbo5web

RGB 05 / video projection & painting on canvas / Processing / 250 x 180 cm / 2011

In the series “RGB” Wellmer projects rays of color onto black and white oil paintings. The additive color mixing of red, green and blue happens in realtime, based on generative code. Over time they change their color from red to green to blue in random speed. This happens so slowly that the eye can’t recognise it when observing the canvas constantly. Only when you look away for a minute and then look back, you will notice the difference. The shifted perspective of the oil painting gets expanded with drifting patterns of color.

The starting point for each of the paintings is a photo made by the artist. Marcelina Wellmer photographs the architecture of Berlin city, often office buildings or train stations. In reality gray and static, Marcelina Wellmer starts to fold them as soon as they are caught on her computer and starts to put them into color. Wellmer says:“To me it is a lively intervention from a human perspective.”

E.Wojtowicz, PhD Academy of Fine Arts Poznan / Poland

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E / 2018 – 2016

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E /10 lasered gps traces on black mdf /30 x 30 cm /

10 vibration speakers with GPS sound recordings /10 ultrasound sensors / Augsburg LAB 30 / 2018

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E / Glucksmann Gallery / Cork 2019

Description:

In the interactive visual/sound installation 52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E the body in the urban space processes and analyses the shape and sound sphere of two capitals – Berlin and Warsaw. For several days the GPS application was recording every road traveled by the author of the project, first in Berlin, then in Warsaw, including the car parks and shopping malls as well as other points not always included in regular maps. 14 black MDF boards covered with these roads etched witch laser, illustrates the everyday, individual tracks. Thanks to the tracks, you can see how intricate or simple geometric or chaotic are the routes. You might ask: if the GPS signal weaved in search of a signal? What is the ultimate form of a “personal city” in Berlin and Warsaw – is it similar, or perhaps completely different? The whole route in two cities was copied to the wall of the XS gallery, and fragments of the resulting maps of Warsaw and Berlin can be seen only with a UV flashlight – so in order to see different parts of them, the visitors have to navigate through the gallery space (such as the area of the city). And as it happens with the city – at the end you can only see the path that is right in front of you or behind you – the rest is invisible. The second element of the installation is the sound. 10 vibration speakers attached behind the lasered boards plays the typical GPS commands like : “turn left”, “turn right”, “your destination is on the right”, etc. Every board has a one attributed command. If the visitor comes closer to the board to consider the lasered drawing, the ultrasound sensor react and give a signal to start the record. Because of the number of people and the time of contemplation every time we can hear another sound composition in the space.

Example of sound compositions:

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E / La Chapelle Sainte-Marthe in Montbron / France /2018

DUST (A year of Dust) / 2016

DUST / interactive video projection 2015

DUST / interactive video projection / 2015

“Dust” and “Error 404 502 410” / B-Side Festival Mannheim 2017

“Dust” / screen capture / 2015

The work “Dust” combines generative HD video with the movement of the audience through camera tracking. Since some months I am collecting dust particles on a piece of black plexiglass. Monthly, I photograph the collected set, clean the surface and start from the beginning. The composition and the quantity of dust depend on the movement around the place and other random occurrences. One of the photographed sets I traced in a graphic program, the resulting graphical particles now get animated within the generative video software VVVV. A Kinetic 3D camera tracks the movement in front of the video projection – if somebody gets closer to the projection the dust speeds up and flies into all directions, triggered by the observers motion.

The movement of the pixel dust, although looking random, is based on close observations of real dust flying. A complex power field emulates the forces that also appear in real life.

The composition is never the same; it happens in real time and by chance – it is a generative chaos. The observers movement is interpreted as an artificial wind source.

We humans disturb the dust and let it fly faster. We are a source of wind and motion. Our bodies are now a part of a random, digital artefact, but with roots in real occurrences.

The second part of the project are paintings: the photographed dust is painted on canvas and becomes the name of the month – every month one painting. It will be a one year of dust.

DUST December/ acrylic on canvas, 150 x 180 cm / 2x / 2015

DUST February / acrylic on canvas, 20 x 30 cm / 2015

DUST January / acrylic on canvas, 150 x 150 cm / 2015

DUST October/ acrylic on canvas, 50 x 50 cm / 2015

Scanned_Image / 2014

Scanned_Image01 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image02/ oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image03 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image04/ oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image05 / oil on canvas / 150 x 110 cm / 2013 – 2014

Scanned_Image / exhibition view / Rainbow Unicorn / Berlin 2017

The visual message (painting) have in backround electronic devices: a scanner, scanning the light of a desk lamp or them self – with a help of a mirror. The images emerged in a process of trial scanning with open scanner and moving the light or mirror during the process of scanning. The accidental incurred glitch was the base of the finish result – oil paintings. The process of painting computer generated pictures reverse the image back to a real object and it needs a physical effort. The human factor is back and responsible for variability and subjectivity.

The processing of “re-using” is a strategy of cultural garbology, based on the content of the digital rubbish. As a result of using the redundant data, both – digital images and regular paintings are remediated and shifted into a new aesthetical dimension.

“The randomness of the picture as a key quality, results from a kind of “reverse engineering” tactics that Marcelina Wellmer applies in her works. Using everyday devices, the artist reaches for the ready-made aesthetical formula but also engages them in a form of a transmedial dialogue. “

E. Wojtowich/ PhD, Fine Arts Academy Poznan / Poland

Keywords: remediation, feedback, transmedia, scanning, systems aesthetics, randomness, reverse engineering.

Scanned_Image / 2015

scanned02web

Scanned_Image / 2x scanner, 2x webcam, computer, printer, shredder, 2x amp, 11x speaker, Arduino, sound card / 2015

Scanned_Image / 2x scanner, 2x webcam / 2015

Scanned_Image / LAB 30exhibition / Augsburg 2015 / Germany

Scanned_Image / 77 random prints / 2015

Hardware circuit project / Marcelina Wellmer

Scanned_Image / Pure Data / programming: Gösta Wellmer/ 2015

Description

The work “Scanned_Image” is a circuit of random, technical occurrences. Two scanners are scanning each other – every time in a different, random resolution and at a different point in time. Two webcams relay the scanning process to the monitor and the printer reproduces the image of the scanners’ encounter. An office lamp, flickering along with the process of printing, amplifies the visual noise. The last device in the chain is a shredder – you can take the produced image with you or instantly destroy it.
Another element of the work is sound. Piezo and magnetic microphones attached to the technical devices collect their emitted sounds and electrical fields. The signals get amplified directly through twelve speakers in various frequencies and intensity. In parallel the sound gets processed by software on the computer, controlling the office light and creating a looping and feedbacking soundscape. The machines and devices are functioning in an independent, autonomous circuit, making the human factor obsolete. Humans can only take control by taking or destroying the resulting images of this automated process. But the next image is always already in production.
This materialization of images brings the process of remediation to another level. In the age of overabundance of artificial images it seems to be more interesting to focus on the underlying structure of their making, thanks on their actual content. Therefore, the devices, once called peripheral, are engaged in their reciprocal communication, independently and self-sufficiently.

Press

Lost Landscapes / 2023

Solid Landscapes / 2022

2021

Wund[er}mal / 2020

PRIVAT / 2021

Porous / 2020 -2022

Project +49 157 362 961 96 / 2018

RGB / 2011

52.2297° N, 21.0122° E // 52.5200° N, 13.4050° E / 2018 – 2016

DUST (A year of Dust) / 2016

Scanned_Image / 2014

Scanned_Image / 2015

Copyright © Marcelina Wellmer