Das Spiel mit der Erinnerung - Die Bilderwelt des Künstlers Thomas Demand

04
MEMORY ON DISPLAY
The Paper Illusions of THOMAS DEMAND
Heldenorgel
Büro
who seem to be free of history, Demand creates
a staged design for the amorphous shapes of
our collective memory. He describes it as such:
»It is not the event itself that interests me, but
rather the diffuse and shadowy existence that
they lead to in the shadowy and diffuse realm
of our memory.«
This film is not intended to become a portrait of
Thomas Demand. He would even refuse that. In
his private sphere, as in his work, the reduction,
the minimum, the omission of the persona is
also a leitmotiv that runs through Demand’s understanding
of who he is. Even more, the stories
of the locations that have been »cleared up«
by him need to be further examined. The facts
along with the personal backgrounds he keeps
referring to in his exhibitions neither indicate
nor do they explain.
In the piece »„Heldenorgel« (Hero Organ), the
viewer sees is an impressive work, a battle between
pasteboard and paper. But is the 3 x 2 meter
photo image pure craftsmanship or an very
artistic use of glue? The laconic title, »Heldenorgel«,
gives us a hint that something huge is being
presented. But who still remembers this myth?
Even Thomas Demand didn’t know anything of
its existence until an artist friend placed an old
postcard in his hand. It immediately cought his
interest – a resonating World War I memorial
– which became a victim to the collective amnesia
of an entire nation.Thomas Demand begins
to examine the lost memory. He drives to Kufstein
in the Tyrol to Austria, where the largest
free-standing organ in the world is enthroned.
4,307 organ pipes stand in a row like canons
under the roof of an old fortress. With a certain
amount of admiration, Demand still talks about
how this object gradually revealed itself to him.
The song »Vom Guten Kameraden« (The Good
Comrade) has been played on this organ, which
has been donated by veterans of the First World
War since 1931, in memory of their fallen comrades.
It reverberates from the mountain top to
the valley, to Germany and Austria and beyond.
»Not as brut as the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin
which became a bulky obstacle that stands in
the way of visitors, than rather a memorial that
performs well,« as Demand describes this form
of honoring the dead. Just on the day the artist
called the director of the local music school,
who was assigned to play the organ every day,
the dismantling of the organ pipes was in progress.
The mayor was turning the instrumental
performance into a tourist attraction. Because
of this the organist resigned her job, due to the
objection to this plan. Demand set out for the
memorial right away and twelve hours later he
arrived in Kufstein.
While the craftsmen were working in the back
with their screwdrivers, the music teacher
played on the instrument at the artist’s request
for a last time. »Nothing but minor chords, like
the end titles of a film that didn’t had a happy
end,« he recalls. Since refurbishing the pipes,