MATTHIAS SCHALLER

Magnificent mirrors, reflecting parts of the interior, characterise the image subject of Matthias Schaller’s photographic series Leiermann. These mirrors, however, have long since passed their heyday. They still hang in Venetian palazzi with a worn patina, cracks and traces of decay. One looks in vain for the presence of man in these photographs. No one’s reflection can be seen, and the rooms in which the mirrors hang seem abandoned. This is the leitmotif of Matthias Schaller’s artistic strategy and poetics: the absence of the human subject. The significance of the mirror as a testimony to disappearance and memory has a special role to play here.

In the series Leiermann, Matthias Schaller alludes to the decline of Venice, whose heyday in the 17^th and 18^th centuries was characterised by wealth and the Arts were highly valued and promoted. During this period, a culture emerged whose legacy is still relevant to us today, but which came to an end with the founding of the Republic of Italy under Napoleon. The art of mirror manufacturing on the Venetian island of Murano was in demand beyond the country’s borders and enjoyed a certain monopoly. The complex and costly process of making mirrors from a compound of polished glass and sheets of tin and mercury was a protected secret and the pride of the city of Venice. The mirrors are still a reminder of this glamorous period and its grandiose personalities, but also show abrupt collapse and decay.

The title of the series is taken from Franz Schubert’s Winterreise, more precisely from the last song of the cycle Der Leiermann. Matthias Schaller has transferred the interpretation of Schubert’s music - pain, grief and loss - into the visual. Anyone who knows Schubert’s Leiermann and has the melancholy of this song in their head, can feel the pain of the loss of Venice when looking at the photographs. The ghostly and decayed character of the mirrors as well as the absence of the human individual heighten this canon. The artist, who himself lived in Venice for many years and for whom the loss of culture is accompanied by a loss of the city, plays with the two genres of art and captures their proximity to each other.

An artist’s book with a text by Mario Codognato has been published in 2019 by the artist’s own publishing house Petrus Books to accompany the series ‘Leiermann’.

In addition, Beck & Eggeling will be showing a set from Matthias Schaller’s ‘DISPORTRAIT’ series in its showroom, excerpts of which can also be seen in large format in the NRW-Forum of the Kunstpalast.