Clemens von Wedemeyer （Germany）
Born in 1974, Gottingen
Now residing in Berlin

Solo Exhibitions
2008 Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (CGAC), Santiago de Compostela
2007 Films in Common, Argos - Centre for Art & Media, Brüssel
2006 Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
2006 Rien du Tout, Centre d'Art Contemporain (CAC) in Brétigny-sur-Orge
2006 P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York

Group Exhibitions
2008 Eastern Standard: Western artists in China, Mass MoCA (Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art), North Adams
2008 Villa-Romana Fellows, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin
2007 Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Present, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
2007 Fiction vs. Reality, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon
2007 4th Skulptur Projekte Münster, Münster

Artwork of 7th Shanghai Biennale
     

  

Otjesd︱production still︱2005︱Photo: Eiko Grimberg︱ Clemens von Wedemeyer
Otjesd︱still︱2005︱Clemens von Wedemeyer
Clemens von Wedemeyer's films and video works operate in a transitional zone, somewhere between documentation and fiction. Very much in the spirit of Bertholt Brecht he seeks out alienating effects, creating a recurrent sense of disillusionment. On occasion his camera observes a real situation where, although nothing particularly unusual is happening, tension arises and seems to be building up to a dramatic climax that it never quite reaches. In one case lay actors re-enact a well known film sequence in such a way that the viewer's curiosity is focused more on their individual backgrounds than on the film plot. And in yet other works, von Wedemeyer destroys the fiction unfolding within a film by placing a monitor right next to it showing a documentation of the making of that same film.
This is the situation in Odjest, which–in a single, extended shot–follows the prototypical progress of migrants crossing the border from one country to another. The scene in an ostensibly 'Russian' setting looks like open-air theatre and mixes banal and poetic moments and texts; to judge by the consistency of the prevailing mood it is a stage-managed performance. The resulting work is a filmic form where the approach to the existential theme of migration is poised between empathy and analytical observation.
Julian Heynen