Interview with German Writer Jurgen Stack
Seo Jeong Art Two-Person Exhibition 'Time Does Not Flow'
Presenting a Multifaceted Concept of Time
"Everything we see is not true, scattered, and disappears. Nature is always the same. But when we look at the visible phenomena of nature, nothing endures." - Paul C?zanne
An empty notebook and a vase filled with fresh flowers are placed on stands of varying heights, facing the sunlight outside the window. On the wall just behind, a photograph capturing this scene is hung, overlapping the boundary between the reality before the eyes and the recorded moment, as if guiding to another dimension. German contemporary artist Juergen Staack (47) explained, "Although the installation work started from photography, the intention is ultimately to exclude photography as much as possible and focus entirely on life with the sun, the flowers that wither and die over time, and that fleeting moment, allowing it to be fully embraced."
Juergen Staack, who gained attention for his poetic reinterpretation of originals at the boundary between language and image, visited Korea through a two-person exhibition titled "Time Does Not Flow" with Korean artist Hong Sunmyung at Seojeong Art Seoul in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
Staack said in this exhibition, "It contains reflections on how the ecological existence of 'time' changes according to movement and stillness." To track the change of time through the shadows cast by sunlight on objects, he directly exposes photographic paper under the sun to capture that moment.
The light briefly lingers as a shadow on the empty notebook in front of the vase and then disappears, but the poetic moment of the instant exists eternally in the memory of the viewer who observes it. Staack borrowed Paul C?zanne's words to describe this moment as "if you don't hurry, it scatters and disappears." However, through his work, he fully captures that moment and existence, recording the instant.
Although the fleeting moment is beautiful, he also said that one must be cautious about accepting it as truth. On the third floor of the exhibition hall, the red artwork "Moir?" that captivates visitors' eyes is a piece that uses visual errors created by overlapping patterns of fabric as an aesthetic tool. When the lightbox in the background is turned on, it produces a completely different pattern, reminiscent of optical art.
Staack, who majored in photography, said, "Now that photography has become common with the spread of smartphones, the public communicates more through images than words and easily believes images themselves as truth without subjective judgment." He added, "One of my concerns is to be cautious about this. I believe there are two realities: the actual physical reality and the digital virtual world. My concern to prove existence in this physical reality led me from photography to installation work."
Observing the spread of 'fake news' through social media during the COVID-19 pandemic, where images are blindly trusted without subjective judgment and the media is being weakened, Staack said, "Through the serious social phenomena that worsened during the media's disempowerment, I felt a responsibility as a photographer to capture more truth."
In the exhibition theme "Time Does Not Flow," humans exist within 'time' and prove their existence through time. Staack presents the essence of time, a central theme of existence he has long explored through his experience and memory accumulation and transformation. Through this exhibition, he emphasized, "I hope you sensitively capture the small moments of everyday life," adding, "There is no greater artist than nature." The exhibition runs until December 24.
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