Marcel Odenbach: A look at art in the service of democracy

Marcel Odenbach is a German video artist . One of THE German video artists, together with media artist Klaus vom Bruch and sculptor, video and performance artist Ulrike Rosenbach, Marcel Odenbach forms the trio of the most internationally renowned German video artists (who have been working together since the 1970s).

Marcel Odenbach is internationally renowned, but his life and work remain deeply rooted in his birthplace: He was born in Cologne on July 7, 1953, has lived primarily in Cologne ever since, held a professorship and served as Vice-Rector at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne for many years, and is currently featured in We Call It Ludwig. The Museum Turns 40!” at the Museum Ludwig in Ai Weiwei, Candida Claes Gerhard Rosemarie Trockel (you can learn more about the participating artists and the anniversary exhibition in the Kunstplaza article: “Anniversary Exhibition 2016: Museum Ludwig Presents Museum Ludwig” and in individual artist portraits).

ranks 474th in the world's best art list . He has been listed among the 500 most important contemporary artists for decades and came very close to 300th place around 2008.

A versatile artist and his multifaceted art

Marcel Odenbach studied art, among other subjects, from 1974 to 1979 at the Aachen University of Technology . Not practical art, but art history , and not only art, but also architecture and semiotics .

Semiotics is the theory of signs, the science that deals with sign systems. It shapes and examines the effect of signs of all kinds: pictograms, gestures, formulaic symbols, language-forming signs such as letters, and regulatory signs such as traffic signs.

The numerous conspiracy theorists currently active can now begin searching for hidden signs in Marcel Odenbach's art. But beware, Marcel Odenbach's art is full of signs that aren't immediately obvious to every fool. These signs, however, point to real political imbalances, the arduous and necessary confrontation of which the conspiracy theorists, through their creative practice of denial, are precisely trying to avoid.

In 1976, Marcel Odenbach and fellow students (still studying) founded the “ATV Producers Group”, which will be discussed further below.

In 1978, perhaps as a creative break before the stressful final year of his studies, Odenbach had an extraordinarily productive year:

“Keeping Yourself in Good Spirits!” from 1978 deals in 13 sequences alternately with the theme of play (rules of the game and their observance, change, overturning), which is contrasted with uncut recordings of scenes that capture the politically heated climate of the hunt for terrorists in the “hot autumn” of Germany in 1977.

With "The Great Misunderstanding," created in the same year, Odenbach reached a wider public for the first time. "The Great Misunderstanding" is an ironic performance, a parody of the recently fashionable art form of performance art, in which Odenbach, as the "ruler's fool" or (artistic) variety artist, performs his magic tricks to give those who profit from art and the art recipients (who are simultaneously and equally used for profit) – the real attraction, that is, "The Great Misunderstanding" – the opportunity to perform while watching and evaluating what is presented.

The artwork was presented in Basel, arguably the most important international art market alongside Cologne, and Odenbach was not bothered at the time that he was able to formulate his critique of “art and art reception in modern times” precisely through the support of a Swiss gallery .

Something we probably still need to take as a model today is that the money always stays with the protagonists of the exploitative, inhumane, environmentally destructive systems that must be fought “for the good of the world”.

Also from 1978: “I think I have lost myself”, a performance recorded on video, which, using the scenario “the artist and his loneliness in the exhibition business”, describes in fairly clear symbolism the feelings that introverted artists suffer when presenting their works in public, and “When the elephant becomes an ivory trader” , a photographic work on the “German Autumn” of RAF terrorism, which at the same time criticizes the significance of technology as a modern instrument of domination.

Currently, the work “Making a Picture of a Picture” from 2016 can be seen at the anniversary exhibition of the Museum Ludwig, about which only this much should be revealed: it contains a perfidious search game in which typical Nazi art has to be searched for.

Many more videos have been created between 1978 and the present day, which you are welcome to discover. To pique your curiosity, here is a short selection of titles (which in itself constitutes a kind of "cover story"):

As if memories could deceive me, The silence of German spaces frightens me, The consumption of my own critique, The distance between me and my losses, The untruth of reason or: I tried to sleep through the problem, Three-handed piano concerto for horribly out-of-tune instruments, A day at the seaside, Conversation between East and West, Turning in circles, Crocodiles lurk in still ponds, Men's stories 1, It turned my head, As long as the ball rolls, Standing, not falling, Silent movements, Traumatic tropics, Disturbed places, Don't cry, child, When the wall moves to the table, Too good to be true…

Marcel Odenbach has often explained why he (likes) working with the medium of video:

• “Since video combines three different elements, a) the image, b) the sequence of actions, c) the sound, to demonstrate the power of technology and progress in society.
• Because the television image corresponds more closely to today's viewing habits than the blackboard image.
• Because television, as a pastime with its high entertainment value, has triggered social, i.e., political changes “to a great extent”.
• Because media analysis and criticism has become a central theme in our society.
• Because I can theoretically reach a larger audience than just museum visitors.
• Because my visual representation can no longer be used as decorative and representative wall art.
• Because art loses part of its commodity character.
• Because I can offer more comprehensive alternatives!”

(quoted from www.medienkunstnetz.de)

Nevertheless, he has always also produced the blackboard drawings he disqualified in this statement (by which he simply means two-dimensional pictures), alongside and/or in preparation for his video work.

In the USA, it is primarily these "chalkboard paintings" that are associated with the artist Marcel Odenbach and that have made him famous. Here, Marcel Odenbach's chalkboard art is still something of a hidden gem, waiting to be discovered. Here are some insights into this aspect of Odenbach's artistic work:

• 1975: “If this continues…” from: Saying of the Month, pencil and colored pencil on paper, three parts
• 1977: “Keeping oneself in good spirits”, collage and concept for the video work of the same title, pencil, colored pencil, ink on paper, three parts
• 2004: “Newcomer”, collage, ink on paper
• 2005: Marcel Odenbach, “March 20, 2003”, collage, photocopy and cardboard on paper, ink, pencil
• 2006: Marcel Odenbach, “Daylight”, collage, photo and gouache on paper
• 2010: Marcel Odenbach, “Probeliegen”, collage, ink and pencil on paper
• 2012: Marcel Odenbach, “Sitzfleisch”, collage, photocopy and cardboard on paper, ink, pencil
• 2013: “Filed and Hung Up”, collage, ink on paper

Marcel Odenbach: Public life, exhibitions, awards

Since 1992, Odenbach has taught as a professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and the Cologne Academy of Media Arts; in Cologne he also served for a time as Vice-Rector of the Academy of Media Arts.

In the summer semester of 2010, Odenbach was appointed full professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he has been teaching film and video ever since.

Also in 2010, he was elected to the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

featured 300 exhibitions in the past including 50 solo exhibitions and 250 group exhibitions in all major exhibition venues and centers of contemporary art.

Including MoMA New York and Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art Berlin, the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany Bonn and Kunstraum Düsseldorf, the De Appel Centre for Contemporary Art Amsterdam and Badischer Kunstverein Karlsruhe, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía Madrid and the Musée d'art contemporain Montréal, the Centre Pompidou Paris and the Folkwang Museum Essen, the Academy of Arts Berlin and the Latvian National Museum of Arts Riga, the Museum of Contemporary Art Kraków and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Sharjah Art Foundation and the South African National Gallery Cape Town, Para/Site Art Space Hong Kong and the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Has anyone ever become an artist simply because they love to travel the world?

With the 41st Venice Biennale in 1984, the 18th São Paulo Biennial in 1985, the 19th São Paulo Biennial and documenta 8 Kassel in 1987, the 25th São Paulo Biennial in 2002, the 8th International Istanbul Biennial in 2003, and the International Gothenburg Biennial in 2005. Will every town with more than 10,000 inhabitants eventually have its own biennial (triennial, quadrennial, quintessential)?

Art by Marcel Odenbach can be viewed in the following public collections :

• Germany : Hamburger Bahnhof Museum for Contemporary Art Berlin, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Kolumba and Museum Ludwig Cologne, Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt/Main, Hamburger Kunsthalle, ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig, Pinakothek der Moderne Munich
• France : FRAC des Pays de la Loire Carquefou, Center Pompidou Paris
• Italy : Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia
• Canada : Musée des fine-arts du Canada, Ottawa, ON
• Liechtenstein : Liechtenstein Art Museum, Vaduz
• Hungary : Ludwig Museum Museum of Contemporary Art, Budapest

The collage “Zugezogen” from 2004 was included in the official collection of contemporary art of the Federal Republic of Germany .

Legendary stories about Marcel Odenbach

No scandals to be made, Marcel Odenbach simply lives and works. Characteristic of his pleasantly laconic manner is the following short sentence from the art talk “Seven Years Later” about the exhibition “Political Populism” at the Kunsthalle Wien:

Interviewer:

The works in the exhibition "Political Populism" were more or less selected by you yourself, so to speak, you brought them together on this theme. I find it extremely interesting that there's a series with the striking title "German Symbol," and two of the German symbols are Volkswagen and Deutsche Bank, which have once again gained notoriety this year due to scandals, so to speak, that the very nature of the successful German industrial company or the German banking group has been fundamentally called into question. But actually, these works also originated from a different context – why did you specifically choose the German symbol for political populism?

Marcel Odenbach: “That’s overinterpreted, of course I took what was available…” (abbreviated for content only, in fact Odenbach adapted to the interviewer’s style of speech and answered even more, can be heard/seen in the following video).

Marcel Odenbach's work and the future

Before reaching his fourth decade, Marcel Odenbach began to pass on his knowledge as a professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, the Cologne Academy of Media Arts and the Düsseldorf Art Academy.

As a full member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts, he has also been part of a learned society since 2010, which advises the state government on its tasks in the field of science and art, with the academy members being consulted primarily in the area of ​​stimulating and promoting new research projects.

Furthermore, the members of the seven German state academies maintain a lively scientific exchange among themselves and with other scientific institutions at home or abroad, support young scientists and help organize the academies' regular public events.

Just as Marcel Odenbach always loved to combine explosive socio-political issues with a seemingly banal topic, today he uses the framework of “fine art” for political engagement.

For example, in 2008 in an artist talk with Werner Gephart and Stephan Berg at the Bonn Art Museum (it's about "the right in the image", see the following video No. 1, further discussion in front of Odenbach's works -> video No. 2) or in the art talk "seven years later" from 2015 on the exhibition Political Populism at the Kunsthalle Wien (November 6, 2015 to February 7, 2016, art talk on YouTube: see video above).

Video No. 1 – “Law in the Picture”

His art is never loud or crude, but rather subtly illuminates the lingering effects of National Socialism in the present political dimension of modern art represented by Odenbach and (currently too few) other contemporary artists ; our time certainly offers ample opportunities for political engagement.

An early idea of ​​Odenbach's could prove interesting in connection with the question of the future of our television, which is currently up for decision: During his training as an artist, which encompassed several courses of study, Marcel Odenbach founded the “ATV Producers Group” .

ATV stands for Alternative TV; it is the first pirate TV channel based in Cologne.

Four decades ago, Odenbach, Rosenbach, and vom Bruch launched precisely the private form of publication that is currently disrupting the entire media landscape. The then barely conceivable utopia of the artist trio envisioned a future where information would not be disseminated by media professionals, but rather by ordinary citizens who would broadcast information of interest to them, while simultaneously representing the potential recipients of that information.

“We make our own television ,” was the slogan, a provocation at the time: Television sets had only been widespread in households in significant numbers for about a decade, and color had only appeared on screens a few years earlier; for the average citizen, television producers were authority figures who disseminated selected and didactically presented snippets of their privileged knowledge to the public. It was unheard of for a few young artists to believe they could make television themselves.

Today, almost nothing is unheard of, and visual messages from citizens to citizens are commonplace. What was once "knowledge from the ruling class" has become "knowledge for all citizens" available via the internet, without those in positions of power revealing to all citizens how to verify whether a source contains fact or lies. The following is an excerpt from the TV talk show "Maischberger" on the topic of "lying press ," in which Pegida supporter and AfD member Joachim Radke expresses his views:

The rest of the sentence is lost in general murmuring.

Sandra Maischberger intervenes in a moderating role: “… it’s still a problem, and I have to address this again, this ‘coordination’, which is a major criticism from your side as well, and the second thing is…” … she touches on further topics, journalist Ulrich Wickert comments on one of these topics.

As soon as he gets a chance to speak, blogger and social media expert Sascha Lobo : “Did you seriously just claim on German television that the Gleichschaltung (coordination) today was more drastic than in the GDR?”

Radke: “They didn’t listen to me; I said it’s not as bad as it was back then in East Germany.”

Lobo: “Then I formulated that as a question correctly, but I would still really ask you to simply look up on Wikipedia – you are a big fan of the internet – what Gleichschaltung really means, and to use this word, which was coined in National Socialism, a little more thoughtfully and perhaps not so sloppily; just like Lügenpresse, you can say that in the same way.”

"Why don't you start to understand that you're sitting here in front of millions of viewers, seriously telling the story that this conformity is suppressing your opinion? Why don't you start to realize what an absurdity this is – surely you can't not understand that…"

Radke: “Perhaps you should realize that you are constantly trying to intellectually elevate yourselves.”

The rest of the quoted program can be viewed on YouTube (the video has unfortunately since been removed). In the comments, Joachim Radke received much applause, while Sascha Lobo was showered with insults.

Sorry, but Radke said that the Gleichschaltung (coordination) in East German television was “not as drastic” as it is today, as can be seen from the above verbatim transcript, and was understood exactly the same way by Lobo and Maischberger.

The term Gleichschaltung (coordination) refers to the first phase of the National Socialists' rise to power, the process initiated in 1933 of unifying all social and political life, the first phase of abolishing democracy .

Anyone who publicly claims that the media operating in a democracy are controlled by the state, is, according to a correct interpretation of the historically established meaning of the term, claiming that the work of these media is not in accordance with the democratic order, that it aims to abolish democracy.

This, in turn, is a direct attack on this democracy, in which these very media perform democratic tasks within the framework of the constitutional order; democratically minded citizens are quite right to have the greatest difficulties with such statements.

In German-speaking countries, media outlets that held a different opinion than one's own have always been attacked as "lying press"

The Nazis initially defamed everyone who still had the courage to write against anti-Semitic conspiracy theories "lying press" "coordinated" (murdered, driven out of the country, silenced through imprisonment and other forms of coercion), the media of the later wartime enemies were vilified as "lying press" - a term that democratically committed citizens no longer want to hear today.

Tichys Einblick is an (online) monthly magazine by former Helmut Kohl employee Roland Tichy , who, according to experts (who studied politics and spent at least 8 hours a day dealing with politics for a few decades after their studies), has drifted quite far to the right since then.

This assessment casts doubt on the suitability of this publication for forming a neutral opinion. Furthermore, Radke, who works as a bus driver for the Berlin public transport company, will soon no longer be reading this magazine anyway: until the Maischberger program, he hadn't realized that "Einblick" presents itself as an opinion and monthly magazine for the liberal-conservative elite, thus addressing the very people Radke opposes.

The national weekly newspaper “Junge Freiheit” was examined by political scientists and classified as a “mouthpiece of the New Right” and to the “border area between conservatism and right-wing extremism” ; there is no “neutral opinion” here either.

achgut.com leads to the “Axis of Good”, also an opinion platform for political outsiders, which, with its proximity to the Swiss Weltwoche, is certainly more right than left of center.

Jung und Naiv, whose full title is “Jung & Naiv – Politik für Disintersierte” (Young & Naive – Politics for the Disinterested) , is a regularly broadcast political interview program. Journalist and host Tilo Jung wants politicians to give answers that even 14-year-olds could understand; foreign words are not allowed, and technical terms must be explained from the ground up.

This sounds as if the interviews would be excellent sources of information for citizens who, due to their upbringing in a dictatorship, still struggle to grasp the fundamental principles of a democratic order. In reality, they are not, because the experimental concept eschews any political orientation and thus presupposes precisely the solid knowledge and understanding of democracy acquired through years of schooling, which Mr. Radke apparently still needs to acquire through his informational work.

Radke himself proves this by citing his sources: ARD and ZDF , three sources from the right-wing spectrum and an “experimental explainer page” are not a suitable basis for forming a “neutral opinion”.

With all due respect for the differing opinions of fellow citizens (and all the sympathy of the typical Berliner for “his” Berlin bus drivers), it is the duty of every democratically minded citizen in a democracy to point out this fact to people like Mr. Radke in an unintellectual and exaggerated manner.

Returning to the entire content offering of the medium of television and to television consumption (apart from talk shows on socio-political topics, apart from one's own pirate radio station), to which Marcel Odenbach already commented in the work “The Consumption of My Own Criticism” , 1976 – 1979.

Regarding this work and his critique of consumerism, Odenbach explained: “[In my work] I am concerned with the preservation of the passive consumer attitude in television… Television… necessitates passive consumption, since ratings are crucial for program planning. Time and opportunities to offer an alternative are wasted through commercial entertainment programs… Due to the narcotic effect of the media, it is very difficult for the consumer to recognize their own consumption” (abridged quote from: medienkunstnetz.de/werke/der-konsum-meiner-eigenen-kritik ).

That was in 1976; since then, passive consumption in front of the television has driven up the average weight of the population; in the USA, a special trade emerged for oversized recliners (TV chairs), into which extreme cases like this one: kurzelinks.de/qmsq no longer fit.

Critical observers believe that the programming available has declined in quality since then, with the 30th of September 2016, when Eins Plus and ZDF Kultur were shut down, marking a small high point in the development towards increasingly stupid television.

Eins Plus was the “youth channel”, which, in addition to rather embarrassing magazines and series, brought concerts, shows, comedy, films, advice, knowledge and information to the screen and was therefore also interesting for every older person with an interest in the development of our world.

ZDFkultur covered the areas of music, performing arts, film culture, net culture and gaming; both channels, together with the third programs, accounted for a good percentage of what a consumer who hadn't yet been dumbed down reached under their remote control.

Eins Plus is replaced by “One”: “One for you, the best thing television has to offer” .

The best ones are presented individually: An American late-night show, a crime series with a 1920s private detective, “Doctor Who” (from 1963), reruns of Tatort, the British sketch show “Little Britain” and the wacky hospital series “Nurse Jackie” (which is switched off by the hospital patients who are most dependent on television because it is too reminiscent of how wacky things actually are in many German hospitals at the moment).

There are some hot shows among them, but if that's the best thing the appointed television producers have managed to produce so far, it's time for them to leave.

Even the enjoyment of “funk” could suggest such a diagnosis. The programming of the “non-linear digital content network” (quote from the producer), which replaces ZDFkultur, is presented as an A-Z list of show titles: A Coffee with Moritz Neumeier (do you even need to know him?), On the Toilet (I go alone), BA (aka Barış, if that helps), Bohemian Browser Ballett, Bongo Boulevard, Datteltäter, The Question, Start Living, Fuck You! (You too!), Finalclash, frei.willig.weg (immediately), funk life, Game Two, Germania, Gute Arbeit Originals, Good Morning, Internet! (she trills every morning), Headlinez, upright (is the show unusable?), iam.serafina, Hunters & Gatherers (now it's getting clear: we're that time again), Jana's Diary, Bachelors, Kliemannsland, Kostas Kind, LiDiRo, Living the healthy Choice ('Nutritional advice would have sounded really uncool too'), Open and honest (Of course), Pop Date, Smart as a Cat, StarStarSpace, Superpolypsycholum, Tatort – The Show (turned out to be a yawn), Team Playground, Tourettekette, What about Fabian (and who cares?), Wishlist, World of Wolfram (dry or wet?), Wumms!, Y-Collective, 1080 Nerd Scope.

Marcel Odenbach had already made “different television” with his pirate radio station and in 1989 participated in the first real attempt at alternative program development: the art channel of RTL plus , the first time “artists made television” with noteworthy reach, with around 50 artists filling one week of airtime, during which an audience of 2 million was reached.

What sounds like nothing quickly becomes a sensational success: One only needs to consider that all 2 million viewers must have been people who don't switch off television when the programming is unappealing, but rather channel surf, and who stumbled upon this art channel purely by chance while channel surfing; it can be assumed that RTL plus's regular audience rejects art as "intellectual hyperbole" (one can also add several percent of art lovers who immediately switched channels at the sight of the captivating graphic art of "Klinke").

Because the arts programming at this channel couldn't be developed, visual artists have so far only been able to contribute to the "public space" of television during the rare minutes in which their art is presented.

Currently, with few exceptions, television programming is of a rather low standard, which logically results from measuring success through ratings – what no one finds objectionable is usually just "standardized rubbish." There's murder, murder, and more murder on almost every channel during prime time, countless reruns of the same old classic films and series, and recently, an increasing nuisance of fake "documentaries" that reach dehumanizing levels of stupidity…

This would probably be television's chance, in fulfilling its public service mandate to "ensure a diverse, comprehensive and balanced media offering in the interest of freedom of information and democracy" (program mandate, § 11 para. 2 and 3 of the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty), to become a true reflection of society: Visual artists – and other artists, and many other social groups – would be empowered to independently create television programs within a catalog of democratic, human rights, etc. (to be democratically established) guidelines, which would only have to meet a kind of television law 5 percent hurdle (naturally with much lower percentages, because there are far more socially relevant individual topics than political parties).

Marcel Odenbach, short biography

• July 7, 1953 Marcel Odenbach is born in Cologne
• 1974 to 1979 Studies in Architecture, Art History and Semiotics, Technical University of Aachen, graduated with a degree in Engineering.
• 1976 Founding of the producer group ATV with Ulrike Rosenbach and Klaus vom Bruch
• Artistic creation from 1976 to the present day, videos in performances, installations and tapes, and two-dimensional images
• 1992 Began teaching as a professor at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design and the Cologne Academy of Media Arts (also Vice-Rector)
• 2010 Full Professorship for Film and Video at the Düsseldorf Art Academy
• 2010 Election to the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts
• Marcel Odenbach lives mainly in Cologne Ostheim and Ghana and also has an apartment in Berlin.