The 1990s saw in Germany the same integration
of all fields formerly separated in art, design, and
technology. Computer imagery and virtual reality,
model building and exact documentation, still and
moving images grew into each other and were ex-
hibited as photography only under the conditions
of being a two-dimensional, printed, or projected
plane. Thomas Demand’s work, for example, is
shown as photography although he considers
himself more a media artist and sculptor. On
the other hand, Gudrun Kemsa, trained as sculp-
tor, is equally known as a video artist and as a
photographer. Heidi Specker has had a training
in photography, but her work can be traced in
computer graphics as well. Susanne Bru ̈gger’s
Map Workcoincides with the return of cartogra-
phy into Conceptual Art, and Hardy Burmeier
uses vernacular photographs of the nineteenth
century as a base for his computer works.
Artists of this kind come from a variety of back-
grounds which were less distinctive for their work
than in former generations. Subsequently, a new
type of institution arose, teaching an equal variety
of subjects from drawing and painting over photo-
graphy and philosophy to electronics and economy.
Although several academies have taken the first
steps of their own transformation in that direction
(like the Viennese Academy of Applied Arts), only
two new schools have to be named in this field—the
Kunsthochschule fu ̈r Medien(Academy of Media) in
Cologne, and theStaatliche Hochschule fu ̈r Gestal-
tung (State Academy of Design) in Karlsruhe,
which is directly linked to and situated under the
same roof as theZentrum fu ̈r Kunst- und Medien-
technologie(Centre of Art and Media Technology).
It is too early to see results of these schools, but
there still is going to be a small German notion in
works that integrate photography and media tech-
nology, the Internet and virtual reality, English
language and Chinese or Kanji characters. These
artists will act globally and still have their feet on
the ground of their home countries, Germany and
Austria among them.
RolfSachsseFurther Reading
Stenger, Erich.Die Photographie in Kultur und Techni, Leip-
zig: E.A. Seemann, 1938 (American publication: New
York, 1939).
Photography in Germany, 12 (Exhibit catalogue). Stuttgart:
Institut fu ̈r Auslandsbeziehungen, 1981–1991.
Geschichte der Fotografie in Oesterreich, 2 vol., (Exhibit
catalogue). Bad Ischl: Oesterr. Fotomuseum, 1983.
FOTOVISION, Projekt Fotografie nach150 (Exhibit cata-
logue). Jahren, Hannover: Sprengel Museum, 1988.
Das deutsche AugExh. cat. Hamburg Munich: Deichtorhal-
len/Schirmer/Mosel, 1996.
Honnef, Klaus, Rolf Sachsse, and Karin Thomas, eds.Ger-
man Photography. New Haven, CT and Cologne: Yale
University Press/DuMont, 1997.
Positionen ku ̈nstlerischer Photographie in Deutschland seit
1945 (Exhibit catalogue). Berlin Ko ̈ln: Berlinische Gal-
erie/DuMont, 1997.
Markus Rasp, ed. Contemporary German Photography.
Cologne: Taschen, 1997.
frauenobjektiv, Fotografinnen 1940 bis 195(Exhibit catalo-
gue). Bonn Cologne: Haus der Geschichte der Bundes-
republik/Wienand, 2001.JOCHEN GERZ
German
Unlike conceptual artists who radically denied the
validity of the image, Gerz uses photography in
order to redefine the status of representation in
contemporary art and culture. For him, photo-
graphy and text, through their many forms, are
two inadequate, but complementary descriptive
systems. As he put it: ‘‘What’s happening when I
am in front of an Ad Reinhardt monochrome? I am
constructing a text. What’s happening when I am
reading? I am creating images as they were a part of
my nature.’’
Jochen Gerz was born in Berlin in 1940. In 1966,
he moved to Paris, where he has lived ever since.
While studying in Cologne, London, and Basel,
Gerz became interested in poetry. As early as 1959,
he was a writer and translator; gradually his texts
became more and more visual, until by 1966, the
year he settled in Paris, he joined the visual poetryGERZ, JOCHEN