Wermke Leinkauf

A voyage of discovery

Today, it is considered quite normal for two artists to combine their work - there are many famous examples over the last 35 years. But it is something special when two very different characters join forces, especially when it seems unlikely due to the different places and fields of study. But Matthias Wermke and Mischa Leinkauf have something in common that has contradicted a career based on a drawing board all their lives - both have known each other from their youth in the East Berlin sprayer scene. And here we are immersed in a wild and spectacular background that characterises their work so inimitably today. Let's take the following film by the two young artists: a man hangs by his outstretched arms from some lower edge - of a bridge, a crane or whatever. And just when you want to place a bet on how long he can hold out, he pulls himself up again - or maybe he just lets himself fall?! In the "Decisions" installation, you can see this situation again and again on ten monitors from different perspectives and in different places. This gives viewers at least the chance to get used to the unusual nature of the event. And because familiarisation usually occurs very quickly, it creates a completely unspecific interest, for example in actions that are repeatedly disrupted in an unplanned manner, in prohibitions that become commonplace, in observations of actions that seem impossible. And so suddenly new possibilities emerge that are usually only available in an "upside-down world". As Matthias Wermke and Mischa Leinkauf themselves write in a project outline, it is therefore about a journey of discovery, about an unusual approach to public space in which the familiar becomes the unknown. The viewer should simply and quite spontaneously become aware of - in the literal sense - free spaces that the artists have conquered in a highly artistic and quite subversive manner. This book is the first individual publication by the artist duo and brings together all of the actions they have carried out together to date. In 2012, the two artists were awarded the Columbus Prize for Contemporary Art.

Exhibition:
Kunstverein Heilbronn, 20/7-15/9/2013