Monograph / artist's book, including contributions by a variety of writers as well as materials.
Attitudes of Stone begins with an image sequence of Philipp Modersohn's objects, which seem to morph into one another. These 16 protagonists stand in for materials and processes: furniture, anthropomorphism, metamorphosis, pressure, topiary, peat, photosynthesis, adaptation, infrastructures, heaps, sediments, glass, heat, concrete, vibrancy, phase transition. Subsequently, these constellations unfold in poetic and theoretical contributions by authors from a variety of fields, along with pseudoscientific diagrams and documentation of the site-specific installations. A horizontal dialogue can begin: between the different sections as well as with the contributors, humans, things, and processes alike. Meanwhile, the ink on the page fluctuates as if the printing press itself is breathing.
"We meet unheard-of protagonists; unheard-of because stone, minerals, glass, slag, peat, and such are given form, expression, voice, and space to act. They are staged as actors of themselves and counteract human patterns of thought and action in subtly humorous ways. […] We are allowed here to experience a deterritorialised connectivity between matters and what matters, formation and re-formation, processes of negotiation and fresh perspectives. Something is virtually set free."
In his multidisciplinary practice, Philipp Modersohn (born 1986 in Bremen, lives and works in Berlin) highlights the vibrancy of all terrestrial matter. In his animated films, various non-human, often inorganic actors appear, stones, shells, plastics, etc., which tell of their existence and of their view of things, not least in relation to the human influence on their respective habitats. In his sculptures, which are mainly made of sediments and other originally earthbound materials, Modersohn emphasises the beauty of the fragile, drawing on the decisive shaping forces on our planet: pressure and heat. The works oscillate between indoor and outdoor objects and often have an architectural and design reference. Moreover, in both his sculptures and his films, Modersohn often makes use of contemporary appropriation of Baroque motifs to question the future of art-making in the age of the late Anthropocene.
Edited by Wilma Lukatsch and Oldenburger Kunstverein.
Texts by Wilma Lukatsch, Martin Beck, Helene Romakin, Winston Hampel, Maria Thereza Alves, Martyna Šulskutė, Vanina Saracino, Philipp Modersohn, Philipp Staab, Daniel Falb, Bettina Klein, Harry Haddon, Lea Schleiffenbaum, Ayumi Rahn.
Graphic design: Stooodio Santiago da Silva, Eve Satouf, Sofia Harley.
