liars and believers

· technique ·

mixed painting on non-streched canvas, 186 x 144 (cm)


· material and tools ·

acrylic, oil, brush

Feininger in Jena II

· technique ·

oil painting on non-streched canvas, 86 x 125 (cm)


· material and tools ·

pigment, oil, brush


· description ·

Started with a commissional work, a order to paint a series of paintings about the city of Jena – in the style of Lyonel Feiniger's painting series of the city of Halle,
this work resulted.

In the working process i got sick of hearing the church bells ringing all the time, more often then one time per hour. So i decided to cancel the ordered work because a church building was in the center of composition.

Feininger in Jena I

· technique ·

oil painting on non-streched canvas, 103 x 156 (cm)


· material and tools ·

pigment, oil, brush


· description ·

A commissional work, a order to paint a series of paintings about the city of Jena – in the style of Lyonel Feiniger's painting series of the city of Halle,

untitled

· technique ·

mixed painting on non-streched canvas, 140 x 140 (cm)


· material and tools ·

acrylic, lacquer, brush

untitled II

· technique ·

oil painting on canvas, 30 x 40 (cm)


· material and tools ·

oil, pigment, brush

untitled III

· technique ·

oil painting on unstreched canvas, 44 x 32,5 (cm)


· material and tools ·

oil, pigment, brush

untitled IV

· technique ·

oil painting on unstreched canvas, 52 x 39 (cm)


· material and tools ·

oil, pigment, brush

untitled V

· technique ·

oil painting on unstreched canvas, 35 x 37,5 (cm)


· material and tools ·

oil, pigment, brush

plastic head

· technique ·

sculpture


· material and tools ·

waste of plastics, stone, hot-air pistol


· description ·

Made of plastic waste collected in January 2019 of the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei area from the garbage boxes of the artists, galleries and other stores on site.

Melt down with a hot-air pistol and modeled/sculpted to this head.

The under construction was also made mostly with plastic. Only a ski pole in the vertical and a cuboid stone on the foot are no plastic.

untitled V

· technique ·

sculpture, 18.5 x 7.5 x 6 (cm)


· material ·

wood

refusal of work (part I) – »Es sticht im Kopf«

· technique ·

mural, painting, installation


· material and tools ·

paper, pen, emulsion paint, painter roll, ladder, canvas, pump spray bottle, chair, cravat


· description ·

In process of realicing a project idea by self-imposed compulsion that the inner I did not want, this spell arised.

After some more days and talkings about how to change the project idea i got really frustrated and tryed to destroy the sheet of paper with the project notes and the spell.
One day later my mind changed and the spell was spontanousely written down on the wall. For this i used the first tool and color i could find. This was the black paint and a painter roll.

Subsequently, various things became installative added, such as the piece of paper on which the spell written down first.

Meanwhile i constructed and streched a canvas. With the intension to start some nice colorful painting, my opinion changed and the canvas became edited just with a pump spray bottle and watered black paint.

As part of the Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei – Winter Rundgang, the installation was performatively changed and the "refusal" was practiced.

refusal of work (part II) – »Warum lege ich mir Steine in den Weg?«

· technique ·

installation, performance


· material and tools ·

paper, pen, emulsion paint, painter roll, ladder, canvas, pump spray bottle, chair, cravat


· description ·

A performative process work for the exhibition person of no consequence and a continuation of the work refusal of work (part I) – »Es sticht im Kopf«.

The techniques were similar to the work of part I. Only the black and white color were inverted.

This time a topic was set up befor. It was about questions of self destruction and resulting problems due acting.
In the duration of the exhibiton, one month, the topic was handled and researched.

The performative action tooked place always while the opening hours of exhibition but without pre-announcements.
They were parted in – sitting on the chair and mindly working on the topic, sometimes making notes to the sketch of the spell – or – acting with white paint mostly on the ladder and painting parts of the sketched spells to the wall.

Verboten – About the establishment of an exclusion zone

· technique ·

permanent installation
performance


· material and tools ·

costumes, traffic signs


· description ·

Leipzig, November 2018:
The Saxon administrations and the city of Leipzig have declared the quarter with the most non-germans to be a »weapon ban zone«. This means that the police can control anyone in this zone for no reason and treat them as heavy criminals. This also means that anyone who carrying an object that "can temporarily limit a person's ability to defend himself" can be fined up to 10.000 EUR. The responsible police officer can decide for himself how high the sanction will be. The official zone was inaugurated with a large propaganda show with invited press and a tax-paid "social media team" from the police. Prohibition signs are attached to the boundaries of the zone. Since then, the signs "speak" to the locals on a daily basis about how unwelcome they are and how valuable they are to the administration. The point is to seed fear, especially among people who pass by or who do not live in the neighborhood. In order to deconstruct this fact and also to make the information about it transparently accessible, a small team around the Ost-Passage Theater Leipzig recreated and imitated the 'Verboten-'signs and the propaganda opening in the zone.

Open-letter-on-the-weapons-ban-zone-Eisenbahnstrasse_ 26-10-2018.pdf


The results was a performance. The script was given by the official opening of the weapon ban zone. There the chief of police, minister of the interior and the mayor celebrated the opening and staged themselves in front of the public and internal police press.


In that context a permanten installation in (semi) public space was created.
The installation consits of three modified exclusion zone signs.


Next to it we faked the official website of the exclusion zone, which is hosted by the saxony police. The original page is missing some basic and the most important facts about the exclusion zone and the previous regulations. We added this information to make it transparent. E.g., the fact that the regulations define a weapon as an object that temporarily weakens people's ability to defend themselves. On the original page, there is no indication that the police can sanction people with 10.000 EUR for a book in their pocket, for example.













The page also was used to collect and share parliamentary inquiries and other documents related to the exclusion zone.

Aktuelle Entwicklungen bei der Bundespolizei Dr. Irene Mihalic, Dr. Konstantin von Notz, Luise Amtsberg (BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN)
» 2019-05-29_Drs_19/10514.pdf

Kontrollen zur Einhaltung der Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig, März 2019 Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2019-04-29_Drs_3-1053/77/4.pdf

Kontrollen zur Einhaltung der Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig, Februar 2019 Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2019-04-02_Drs_3-1053/76/24.pdf

Kontrollen zur Einhaltung der Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig, Januar 2019 – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2019-02-28_Drs_3-1053/72/216.pdf

Kontrollen zur Einhaltung der Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig, Dezember 2018 – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2019-02-04_Drs_3-1053/72/114.pdf

Nachfrage zu 6/15402: "Gefährliche Orte", „Kontrollbereiche“ und Bodycams in Leipzig – Juliane Nagel (DIE LINKE)
» 2019-01-16_Drs_36-1 0513/69/48.pdf

Präventive Wirkung von Waffenverbotszonen – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2019-01-14_Drs_3-1053/69/46.pdf

Kontrollen zur Einhaltung der Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig, November 2018 – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2019-01-02_Drs_3-1053/69/11-2018/87736.pdf

Voraussetzungen für die Rechtsverordnung über eine Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2018-12-27_Drs_3-1053/67/106-2018/83329.pdf

Organisation Copwatch – Carsten Hütter (AfD)
» 218-12-14_Drs_16-0141.50/ 3479.pdf

Veröffentlichung des Umfangs der Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig und tatsächliche Auswirkungen – Valentin Lippmann (BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN)
» 2018-11-22_Drs_3-1053/66/127.pdf

Ausnahmen zur Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2018-11-30_Drs_3-1053/67/17.pdf

Befugnisse der sächsischen Polizei in VVaffenverbotszonen – Nachfrage zur Kleinen Anfrage zu Drs. 6/12890 – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2018-10-12_Drs_3-1053/65/54.pdf

Künftige Waffenverbotszone Eisenbahnstraße, Leipzig – Franz Sodann (DIE LINKE)
» 2018-08-03_Drs_3-1053/57/28.pdf

Statistische Erfassung von Messerangriffen und Einrichtung von Waffenverbotszonen – Ulla Jelpke, Dr. André Hahn, Gökay Akbulut (DIE LINKE)
» 2018-07-24_Drs_19/3548.pdf

Waffenverbotszone rund um die Eisenbahnstraße — Nachfrage zu Kleinen Anfrage zu Drs. 6/10434 und zu Drs. 6/11315 – Franz Sodann, Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2018-04-28_Drs_36-1053/50/11315.pdf

Antrag auf Verordnung zu Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig – Enrico Stange, (DIE LINKE)
» 2017-12-15_Drs_36-1053/40/54 .pdf

Antrag auf Verordnung zu Waffenverbotszone in Leipzig — Unterstützung durch Bereitschaftspolizei – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2017-12-15_Drs_3PB-1053/40/55 .pdf

Verordnung zu Waffenverbotszonen in Sachsen
» 2017-09-14_Drs_36-1053/32/55.pdf

Umsetzungsstand eines Gesetzes zur Errichtung von Waffenverbotszonen in Sachsen – Enrico Stange (DIE LINKE)
» 2017-09-12_Drs_36-1053/32/48.pdf











Based on an idea by Felix Almes & Daniel Maier

project organization:
Daniel Maier, Lea Fandrey, Felix Almes

participating artists and performers:
Christopher Brandt, Karl Gierth, Angelos Lakouras Hess, Karolin Süßmann, Verena Zucker

Eine Situation zur "Entstellten Kunst" #1

· technique ·

collage on wood, 120 x 205 (cm)


· material and tools ·

acrylic paint, prints, newspapers


· description ·

Contribution for the exhibition Eine Situation zur "Entstellten Kunst" #1.
Took place in the Gallery of Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, June 2019.

Archive material of the Altenfernen project (2018/Gera) was used to collage a sketch for activistic artpractice.

This work was part of the installative setting of the group Propaganda.
Group participants: Felix Almes, Zeno Gries, Oscar Lebeck, Johanna Mai Schmidt, Stephen Stahn

Eine Situation zur "Entstellten Kunst" #1 – electioneering

· technique ·

installation


· material and tools ·

election placards


· description ·

Part of the contribution for the exhibition Eine Situation zur "Entstellten Kunst" #1.
Took place in the Gallery of Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, June 2019.



(..) Felix Almes hat nach den sächsischen Landtagswahlen 600 Wahlplakate gesammelt. Zeugnisse des Kampfes, in dem die Helden uns ihre Wahrheiten verkaufen und dann am Boden liegen, gezeichnet von Graffiti und Stickern im Gesicht, als hätten sie Wunden, die vom Kampf zeugen. (..)
– Adam Szymczyk, Interview Monopol Magazin





Election placards that were destroyed in different grades of violence by unknown people and then collected by the artist in the city of Leipzig.

What is the meaning of doing politics.
Why are just a few people ruling over the whole society?
Where are the options of participation in our »Democracy«?

To talk about such issues, it might be helpfull to turn the hierarchy between politician and the rest of individuals in our society by 180 degrees.

This installation can be understood as a stage or forum for conversations about our society.

Eine Situation zur "Entstellten Kunst" #2

· technique ·

installation, 300 x 150 (cm)


· material and tools ·

wood, acrylic paint, prints, projector


· description ·

Contribution for the exhibition Eine Situation zur "Entstellten Kunst" #2.
Took place in the Gallery of Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Jul-Nov 2019.

This was a collaborative work, realized by Oscar Lebeck, Johanna Mai Schmidt, Stephen Stahn and Felix Almes.

Photographies and Poems were collages into a two-layer installation.

1937 - 2017: Von Entarteter Kunst zu Entstellter Kunst – Exhibition setup I

· technique ·

installation,


· material and tools ·

electioneering placards


· description ·

Contribution for the 1st setup of the exhibition 1937 - 2017: Von Entarteter Kunst zu Entstellter Kunst. Took place in the Gallery of Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Dec 2019.



(..) Felix Almes hat nach den sächsischen Landtagswahlen 600 Wahlplakate gesammelt. Zeugnisse des Kampfes, in dem die Helden uns ihre Wahrheiten verkaufen und dann am Boden liegen, gezeichnet von Graffiti und Stickern im Gesicht, als hätten sie Wunden, die vom Kampf zeugen. (..)
– Adam Szymczyk, Interview Monopol Magazin



This was a collaborative work curated by Ilse Lafer and Adam Szymczyk.


Industrial boxes were used as a display system for the exhibition.

This box was a cooborative work of Christian Kölbl, Benedict Rheinhold, Andreja Saltyte, Ramona Schacht, Arthur Zalewski and Felix Almes.

1937 - 2017: Von Entarteter Kunst zu Entstellter Kunst – Exhibition setup II

· technique ·

collage on wood, 300 x 150 (cm)


· material and tools ·

acrylic paint, prints


· description ·

Contribution for the 2nd rearrangement of the exhibition 1937 - 2017: Von Entarteter Kunst zu Entstellter Kunst. Took place in the Gallery of Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Dec 2019.

Archive material of the two seminar groups Written Imagery and Propaganda was used to create a collage.

This was a collaborative work, realized with Adrian Lück and guided by Artur Żmijewski.

fragments of darkness
block 1 – AfD and their culture politics

· technique ·

series of 13 etchings, 70x70 (cm)


· material and tools ·

found/ready-made metal plates, eraser/etching tool, paper, oil color, printing press, wet paper tape, cuter


· description ·

The work was developed in context of the HGB Seminar »enstellte Kunst«, curated by Adam Szymczyk in spring/summer/fall 2019.

The whole seminar group researched connections between the historic nazi "exhibition" »entartete / degenertated art« and modern cultur politics espeacialy practiced by the AfD.
My field was about propaganda and rethorik mechanisms that were used by both – the nazis and the AfD.

With this work i tryed to conenct all the different research results related to the topic.

The half of the grafics are transcripts of quotes, headlines and keywords that were used in the public media.
The other half are own lyrical phrases.


Fragment 1 – Overton window
Fragment 2 – propaganda
Fragment 3 – keywords
Fragment 4 – electioneering parols
Fragment 5 – quotes collection no.1
Fragment 6 – art as weapon
Fragment 7 – common mood
Fragment 8 – the rise of downfall
Fragment 9 – art is
Fragment 10 – the frustrated being
Fragment 11 – quotes collection no.2
Fragment 12 – headlines
Fragment 13 – influence


The work exist, next to some E.E. and artist proof prints, just in a single edition.
There is also an edition of the series with modified prints (made and documented in 2020).

Each paper was originaly in a size of 70cmx70cm. Due the printing/drying process and the framing with the wet paper tape, the size of each is varying in a range of some more centimeters.

theater of the masses

· technique ·

etching, 40 x 40 (cm)

The Feininger SketchesI

· technique ·

drawing on paper, 21 x 13 (cm)


· material and tools ·

graphit pencil, aquarell pencil, paper


· description ·

A small series of drawings made in Leipzig and/or Jena.
They were done as preparations for the project »Feiniger in Jena«.