ARTIST
Torsten Schumann
Moray Mair, Arts Blog Mutantspace, March 14th, 2014: “Torsten Schumann‘s photographs highlight the absurdity of life, that brief second in the day when chance creates a surreal juxtaposition, a moment of silliness, profundity, irony, a tell that exposes the world for what it is, a pointless journey towards inevitable death that’s intermittently interrupted by a comical situation that distracts us from our existential angst. The nightmare of ordinariness that we, as people, manage to turn into a drama of Greek proportions, full of tragedy and farce.
It’s on the streets of Germany that we find Schumann walking, his camera pointing at the most extraordinary collisions, his clever compositions catching us off guard, his formal aesthetic skewed by a mania, a euphoria that runs counter to the yawning boredom of suburban life. His pictures are full of delight, stupidity and irritation, of people trying to outwit their boredom yet blind to the magic that surrounds them. Perhaps this is the ultimate irony. In highlighting the utter pointlessness of life Schumann manages, through a visual act of dexterity, to reveal the magic and sublime comedy that makes it all worthwhile. …”
Celina Lunsford, Artistic Director & Chief Curator at Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, 2011: “Torsten Schumann is obsessed with what people do in their freetime, especially outdoors, in nature, in the garden or on the street. He collects the split seconds of everyday situations that are irritating and odd. The perfect world of suburban Germany and post wall industrial breakdown floats on an innertube of surrealist air. Born in Dresden in 1975 Schumann began photographing in the early 90´s at a time when self-reflection of German identity allowed him to bare the touch of self-irony. Torsten Schumann lives and works in Berlin.”
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