In June of this year, Holger Biermann was the first artist to visit the new cooperation partner espai sant Marc on Mallorca as part of an exchange program.
The exhibition “Paradise Tracks” opens on November 23, 2023 and shows the results of his work in Mallorca until the results of his work on Mallorca until January 21, 2024.
In his work as a street photographer, Holger Biermann set out to track down the much-cited beach life in S’Arenal. During his four-week stay, he traveled daily by train from Sineu, the town in the interior of Mallorca where the espai sant Marc residence is located, to Palma. In addition to the series of photos of s’Arenal, I also took one of the train journey. While the train journey runs as a “slide show” in the window of the museum lounge, so to speak, as a path to the entrance, the photo series of S’Arenal is shown in the rooms.
“On Mallorca, I took the train from the center of the island to Palma every day. At 30 degrees in the shade, I often waited lonely at the station for the 12 o’clock train. With my straw hat, I looked like a cowboy – and took self-portraits of the dark silhouette until I was allowed to get on. Maybe that’s why I was so excited to photograph the island’s prairie through the window every time I rode.
(…) I heard crazy stories: of drunks climbing from balcony to balcony in the hotel at night. Of tests of courage by young men jumping into the pool from the fourth floor. Or of parties where knockout drops are administered. Don’t go there, I was told, and I stuck to it. I was on the beach at s’Arenal with just my feet in the water. What an adventure.” (Holger Biermannn, 2023)
This narrative is a collage of incidents that took me to different places in Berlin and was absurd. Hence, all these incidents were like images, objects, and historical facts that inspired me to connect the dots. It was like a giant jigsaw puzzle of the Rhinoceros that had many fragments to be put together. The leitmotif of these multiple narratives is about the bitter- sweet global transactions and the representation of the Rhino in retrospect, which gives the reader a train of thought and a roller coaster ride. I call the Indian Rhino -Maya after an Indian restaurant across from my studio, which was a former pub for Neo Nazis, and the narrative unfolds across continents and transcends time and space. This locality, which was part of the former GDR, has a history. I sought the Rhinoceros with curiosity through the lens of art and history, from the archive of following the creature through history and its representation. It is a collection of incidents from the facts in this complex world of human transactions filled with desire and loss, fear and hope.
I discovered the Rhinocerous as an exotic aesthetic object, as a motif. It was nurtured in the zoo as a tropical, dark, dangerous, and fearsome creature from India. But the pachyderm’s fragile existence as a keystone species on this planet makes it an endangered species. Rhinos are targeted for their horns and perpetuate a chain of violence as humans victimize and hound their existence. This story is inhuman and brutal. Rhinos are creatures closely associated with the elements of earth and water. They exude massive energy but are grounded with an aura of being solitary, meditative, and mindful. An animal that is best left to itself and has a majestic air about it, like the elephant – aggressive only if triggered by human interference. We often view the Rhino within the zoo captivity or on a safari that evokes a sense of awe, curiosity, and fear with a large dose of exotic Zoo architecture that transports one to another artificial landscape. It is a showcase for tourists of the wild in a staged stereotypical environment. From the top of the pyramid, we must capture animals and house them in zoos. Like the art that is savored in museums but does not belong there. We need a holistic and responsible strategy with the wild, not Disneyland.
Albrecht Durer’s Rhinoceros: He was (1471-1528, gifted, versatile, and the most prominent Renaissance artist, known as an incomparable painter and draftsman with a keen eye for the natural world. He was also known for his greatest impact on printmaking. His print, in focus, is considered the essential image of an animal for many reasons and represents a Rhinoceros. In the year 1515, Durer embarked on making an image of it. In retrospect, Dürer’s passion for the natural world was evident in his early work. His ability to create black-and-white graphic images that could be circulated was path-breaking. As the pioneer of artistic printmaking aesthetics and economy, the power of this single unique two- dimensional work of the Rhino created a new kind of circulation and ownership which also dismantled the aura of a singular work of art. Interestingly, Dürer himself never saw an actual rhinoceros. Dürer’s Rhinoceros, as it came to be known commonly, was an image based on a written description and a brief sketch of Maya the Rhino by an unknown artist. As its fame spread, Dürer drew the image we know, combining invention, folklore, and idiosyncratic zoology in a fantastical creature that surpasses any observational study of the animal, and has become a highly influential image in its own right. This woodcut recorded the exotic creature’s arrival in Europe to King Manuel’s menagerie in Lisbon.
