These are some of Thomas Florschuetz’ most significant bodies of work from the past years.
Thomas’ oeuvre commences with fragmentary photos of his own body taken between 1980 and 1996 and known as Early Bodyfigures. In 1993/94, the artist radiographs body parts and thereby transcends our conceptions of the body in his so called Plexus-Works. As a consequence of these works emerges the group Multiple Entry since 1997 -- pictures of a window, taken over a longer period of time and composed into a series of manifold parts. They signify the interface between inside and outside. Since the end of the 1990s, a comprehensive cycle of Ricochet - Flower-Pieces, 1997/2000 evolves, followed by a series of Curtain-Pictures, 2000 and the video installation Eyes -- both were shown at Galerie m, Bochum in the exhibition, ‘Don’t look now’ in autumn 2000. Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion in Barcelona is the first example of a group of works named Enclosures, which reflects the artist’s engagement with forms of modern and contemporary architecture. The Bauhaus in Dessau as well as Le Corbusier’s Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp or the Residence of the German ambassador in London and several buildings by Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil constitute this still growing complex. In 2005/06, the Palast der Republik in Berlin becomes the subject of his series Palastbilder (Berlin), that unfolds the demounting of the former state building. As a counterpart to this, he is photographing the restoration and contemporary extension of the Neue Museum in Berlin through the British architect Sir David Chipperfield (2008/09). The photographs of his latest project entitled Assembly are showing the ‘Capitol Complex’, the palace of justice in Chandigarh, India. The building complex is designed by Le Corbusier and was built in the beginning of the 1950s. In India ‘Capitol Complex’ bears a special meaning as a temple of democracy. Parallel to this Florschuetz is photographing Le Corbusier’s Mill Owners Association Bldg. in Ahmedabad and the campus of Louis Kahn’s Indian Institute of Management. The interest of Louis Kahn architecture was initiated by a prior series about the Salk Institute he shot in La Jolla, California in 2007. At the same time the artist develops photographs of military aircraft on a base in the US under the working title Valkyrie; in this body of work he depicts jets in his typical fragmented way to emphasize their familiarity to body forms as well as the technical way of their construction. They open a variety of different associations. His oeuvre leads the spectator beyond a pure documentation of the chosen subjects. In fact, they undertake a new measurement of the viewed within individual systems of experience. They unfold a dialogue that underlines the fragmentary nature of our senses, of cognition and perception and invites us to the creative world of art
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