Artist Statement
In my work I reveal the different layers of history, mythology and the present. A form of visual archeology, at times blending or colliding with immanent social, political and ecological realities. In this way the picture also becomes a place for the imaginary and projection. It appears like a stage or filmset, pending in limbo somewhere between reality and imagination, past and present.
Current Projects
Crowdfunding campaign for my coming book A Phantom Geography (Cameroon and Kongo). The book is the result of many years of artistic research on German colonialism in Central Africa. It includes 84 contemporary photographs, 70 historical photographs and research material. Contributions by David Van Reybrouck, Eric Vuillard, Elisabetta Corra, Isabelle Meiffert, Gerard Essomba, Benedikt Stuchtey and Albert Pascal Temgoua. Hardcover, 256 pages, texts in German and English, design by Carsten Eisfeld. The book will be published by Spector Books. You can support the project by reserving signed book copies, a special edition incl. pigment print, also silver gelatine artist prints or pigment prints, all signed and numbered. More information and some preview book pages here: kickstarter.com
Based on the photographs and writings of his great-grandfather, photographer and video artist Andréas Lang embarks on a search for traces and an investigation into a lost chapter of German colonial history in Central Africa: a frontier expedition to take possession of the French Congo. His photographs and videos depict places and landscapes in which the phantoms of the colonial era are still present, in a state of limbo between reality and fiction, past and present. He juxtaposes this with previously unpublished historical material that reflects the unvarnished reality of colonialism.
New Babylon, Dubai 2020 (video-installation still, 41:24 min, loop, sound, 112.40 × 200 cm)
RE-VISITING ORIENTALISM. In this project I approach the various projections and problematics of Orientalism by overlaying historical Orientalist paintings in video-installations with contemporary sceneries and video-sequences, thus opening up a field of interpretation and hinting at geopolitical, ecological and social problems as well as political realities. The work becomes a subversive deconstruction of the Western Orientalist perspective by using its aesthetics and creating a palimpsest of the now and the Orientalist imaginary. During my research, I travelled to Istanbul, Arabian Peninsula, Caucasus, Tunesia and Central Asia. The project was initiated in 2019 with the support of Goethe Institute. It is a work in progress, and further destinations are planned for the completion of the theme.
ECLIPSE. Catalogue-book published with Hatje Cantz edition, Germany, february 2019. 144 pages, 70 photographs. 30x29cm Hardcover. Text by: Hans-Michael Koetzle, Stefan Weidner, Frizzi Krella. Design by: Horst Moser. Languages: German, English. hatjecantz.de
In this work I photographed historical places in Turkey, Syria, Israel, Palestinian-Westbank and Egypt. Places that have visible or invisible traces about conflict and religious worship, that are connected to the medieval Crusades and early Christianity. The ambivalence of a so-called Holy Land. The title Eclipse stands symbolically for an obscuration as well as for an astronomic phenomena and apocalyptical portend.
There is also a signed and numbered special edition available, limited to 100 copies including a 24x30cm archival pigment print of “Megiddo”. The price is 100€. Some copies are still available, please contact me directly if you are interested.
Some preview pages of the book here.