Gerhard Marx

This work has been kindly donated by the artist

Gerhard Marx’s work critiques the conventional practice of map-making, which has historically positioned the viewer as distant, objective, and separate from the observed environment, thus rendering the environment as a two-dimensional backdrop with inscribed boundaries. This perspective has played a central role in colonialism and environmental exploitation. Marx’s goal is to engage in a 'spatial re-imagination,' creating new terminologies and descriptive forms that foster new, more harmonious relationships with our world. Through fragmentation and collage, the artist describes a multidimensional space of overlap and intersection, replacing the fictional 'solid ground' of traditional cartography with a dynamic, dimensional, and relational space, grounded in multiple perspectives. Marx’s artistic practice is rooted in a poetic and philosophical exploration of distinctive material traditions. The artist engages in a process of careful dissection and rearrangement, allowing the viewer to tap into the poetic potential and philosophical underpinnings of selected materials. This approach leads to the development of original drawing, sculptural, and performative languages. Marx places significant emphasis on the physical depiction of space, which he refers to as “spatial imaginaries.” The artist is intrigued by how these depictions of space influence and shape people’s understanding of the space itself. Through acts of fragmentation and reassembly, Marx constructs complex and alternative spatial concepts. These propositions aim to challenge the disembodied, objective, colonial, and modern perspectives of today, offering constructions that embrace multiple positionalities, layered histories, and spaces that exist both within and between.