Tonight I had the following guests:
Deniz Saylan, Photographer and his wife, Catherine Rommel.
Gerd Schneider, Director and Theologist.
Christian Schwarm, marketing expert, art collector and owner of Dorten.
Now, this first visit was kind of an easy one to do. Deniz (second from the right) is part of the project. He has been to my flat and we have been talking about the project in detail. He knew what to expect. At leat generally speaking. He was quite impressed nevertheless. At least I had the impression. It is a difference after all, to see lots of pictures stacked on the ground and to see them hanging.
I was bit surprised to meet his wife but I should have guessed he would bring someone. Unfortunately she got into a bit of an accident just before entering my house. What a pity! Her favourite Jesus is more of a favourite Maria, actually. You can see the image on the left hand side of the picture, it's the big oval picture above the door.
Gerd Schneider (way on the left, looking onto the left wall) was also pretty well briefed for the occasion. For one because he is a theologist and secondly because we went on a business trip together, to which I took one of the Jesus images. We wanted to do a recording about it but it never happened because we got stuck drinking beer. That's the way it goes sometimes. Still, he recommended some movies to me and he obviously could tell me a lot about the background of some of the images. You should actually check out his movie "The Edge of Hope". Gerd responded very strongly to the Jesus image on the left wall, way in the back by the window (I will add a link here later, once it is online). It is a motive from between 1920 and 1940 and it shows a very arian Jesus with very arian kids. Gerd actually raised his voice quite a bit when exclaiming: "This is gross! This must have been painted by the same guys who created all the Nazi-Propaganda!" He is probably right. Gerd's favourite Jesus is the one of which you can see only a corner on the very left of the picture. It is a sort of pop-art-ish painting in acrylic. Gerd said: "He looks like Barry White. Taking it serious but in a relaxed way."
Finally there was Christian Schwarm, my colleague from Dorten. He can be seen sitting at the table, filling out the four page questionnaire. He is into contemporary and conceptual art a lot and I was eager to see how he would react. When it comes to concepts and how well they are executed, he is my favourite specialist to ask for an opinion. He said: "This is even better than I expected!" He also said that he had never been to an exhibition where people just kept talking about the displayed pieces for such a long time and in such detail. I haven't been to many exhibitions but I agree: People talk a lot when they come. And the talks are quite personal. His favourite Jesus is basically a block of wood. It comes with other blocks of wood: Mary, Joseph, oxen, donkey ... the package is on top of the little table Christian is sitting at. You can't really see it, wo better wait until it is "Jesus of the day".
TOMMI BREM © 2008