MARC BRANDENBURG

MARC BRANDENBURG is a multimedia artist who was born in 1965 in Berlin, where he currently resides and works. Brandenburg is known for his graphite-on-paper drawings that adopt the look of photographic negatives. Interested in scenes of power and excess, his drawings, made from original and found photographs, depict crowds at soccer games and political protests, as well as celebrities and consumer objects appropriated from mass media:

“I’m interested in people who embody something very contemporary and progressive, and yet seem removed from the current time. With their own style, their own stance, their own world vision, they simply can’t be characterized. Reinhard Wilhelmi, Michael Jackson and Yves Saint Laurent are all examples. Yves’ legendary nude portrait, taken to his own specifications by Jeanloup Sieff, was an absolutely modern and confident picture that embodied the homosexual man. Michael Jackson blew up race, gender and age boundaries. He was the most radical entertainer of the 20th century. Through his extreme wealth, he transformed himself into an art figure with undefined racial and gender identity. In addition, he fathered three white children. I don’t believe there is a middle-class African American family in North America that would be awarded white children for adoption. This kind of tragic corruption reveals just how far we are from a truly free society. For Michael Jackson to have these children was a flamboyant demonstration of political power.”

For 032c Workshop’s exhibition vitrine, Brandenburg has created a unique phosphorescent, film-like montage installation of his works. The idea to incorporate black light to his drawings and prints is the result of a chance visit to the famed Berlin bar, “Kumpelnest 3000”. Distortion and disorientation enforce a concentration on some of the essential aspects of an image. By hand drawing photographic negatives, Brandenburg intimately disentangles the mediating forces that manifest popular images.