Manfred Gipper and Hagen Klennert+
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Manfred Gipper and Hagen Klennert STATEMENT Manfred Gipper and Hagen Klennert have been working as a collage duo for their series of Stadtkreuz (Towncross) collages. Gipper comes from a fine arts background and Klennert from a more design oriented one, which shows in their collages. The images are tactfully calculated and constructed, but there are still loose movements and serendipitous moments in each piece. The colour choices are neutral, but not without excitement, and the imagery is, of course, urban. There are swatches of pattern dispersed throughout each of the compositions, as well as strange technological objects. There are five compositions in total laid out as a cross. In the center is the only one with a person, who sits in front of some anonymous bottles with a light blue X in front of great black strokes overhead. The imagery is somewhat foreboding. In each of the other four compositions there is not a person to be seen on the strange streets or in the buildings. The viewer wonders where the people of the towns have gone, and what the man is still doing here at this cross? There is a sense of history, documentation, and memory, and perhaps also the attempt to erase or forget all three of these. The viewer witnesses a tension as the piece stands in limbo, almost waiting for something or someone, a ghost of what it used to be, and unsure of what direction it will now head. BIO Manfred Gipper was born in Bonn, Germany and now lives and works in Berlin. He started working in collage in 2004. His work has been exhibited in Germany, Russia, France, Switzerland, and Chile. He has been an artist-in-residence at locations in Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany and Tallinn, Estonia. Hagen Klennert was born in Erfurt, Germany and grew up in Moscow and Berlin. He works as a painter, graphic artist, and in film. His work has been shown throughout Germany, as well as in Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, The Netherlands, Austria, and Croatia. In 2012, he was awarded a prize for his artwork by the Losito Kressmann-Zschach Foundation ARTIST CONTACT Manfred Gipper: Hagen Klennert: IMAGES
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