Thomas Putze – Die Schrecken des Eises und der Finsternis - Performance

„All a man needs is a good guitar and a dark road.“ Bob Dylan

Sich als Pinguin verkleiden, dem Körper wie einer Plastik Material zufügen, in einen schweren schwarzen Gummischlauch schlüpfen, sich an der Wand reiben, bis sich ein weißer Bauch abzeichnet, auf Eisschollen hüpfend Blues spielen und dabei im Rhythmus mit dem am Gitarrenkopf befestigten Wischmopp das Schmelzwasser aufwischen. So ausgestattet wird man auch unter seinesgleichen einsam und fühlt sich ausgesetzt. Was treibt mich an, mich von der Gemütlichkeit eines durch Übereinkünfte flauschig weichen Umfelds zu verabschieden, um das Ab- oder gar Jenseitige zu suchen? Vielleicht nur der Argwohn gegenüber der eigenen lauen Zufriedenheit oder glaube ich noch an tatsächliche Entdeckungen, die ich machen könnte? Sind die weißen Flecken auf meiner Weltkarte die Chance für neue Lebensräume oder nur Schimmelflecken, die vergangene Abenteuer überwuchern?
Ob die Form der Performance als Instrument der Wahrheitsfindung taugt, hängt von meinem Mut ab, den Augenblick überhand nehmen zu lassen und Vorbereitetes notfalls über Bord zu werfen, um in der Spannung zwischen einsamem Akteur und Publikum etwas Energie und Erkenntnisse für das Weiterkommen zu gewinnen. Gleichzeitig entscheidet auch der einzelne Betrachter, der in der Überzahl zum Publikum wird, durch seine Aufmerksamkeit, ob der Augenblick so bedeutend werden kann, dass er es wert ist, ein Aktions-Kunstwerk, ein temporäres körper- und raumabhängiges Bild geheißen zu werden. Wenn alle Beteiligten sich darauf einlassen, könnte es magisch und gleichzeitig amüsant werden. Thomas Putze

Introduction to the performance "The Terrors of Ice and Darkness" by Thomas Putze by Dr. Kathrin Reeckmann, 25.01.2014

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

If you miss one of our openings, it is a pity because you cannot get to know the artist, but you can take comfort in the fact that the art is there for the time being and you will certainly find an opportunity to at least get to know it and to find further information and pictures in the catalogue.

Today it's different: a performance is the most ephemeral art form of all - it only exists in the moment of its performance. You, who have come in such large numbers today, know this. You have torn yourselves away from the breakfast table and the newspaper and set off through the cold to the site of the expedition that the artist Thomas Putze will undertake with us.

A performance is always an expedition:
A voyage of discovery into a remote and unexplored region. Which white spots on which map does Thomas Putze have in mind and how high is the risk of failure? Expedition leader Putze has sufficient experience in his profession. He has long accompanied his exhibitions with performances that incorporate his experiences as a draughtsman, sculptor, musician, mountaineer, theology student, pedagogue and human being. He has received prizes for this, he has turned his audience into accomplices, he has confused them and led them to spontaneous actions of help and suggestions for improvement.

A performance is always an action by an artist that only he can perform:
He has developed it for a very specific situation, so it is place- and time-related. The medium of the action is the artist himself. He does not play a role, does not represent a person, he does not act and cannot repeat an action, but is, as it were, his own material and his own work of art. He does not tell a story, but exposes himself to an experiment. He deliberately seeks out borderline situations (these can be absurd, confusing, frightening, comical) from which he hopes to gain experiences, reactions and food for thought for himself and his audience.

Today, performances are an integral part of art life, benefiting more than any other art form from the digitalisation of our age.
While in the action painting of Jackson Pollock in the 1950s, for example, the production process of the work of art became the subject of art, in the happenings of the 1960s, for example, artists and the audience became part of the event before performance became a widely practised art form in the 1970s. With the major retrospective of the artist Marina Abramovic two years ago at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, performance has finally entered the canon of art history.

In Thomas Putze's performance today, you will recognise elements of his sculptural work - such as the combination of different materials within a sculpture, you will recognise the shell that protects but also constricts some of his figures, you will recognise one of his favourite motifs - the penguin - you will also recognise the sometimes desperate humour of the humanist Thomas Putze, with which he fights for the modicum of truth he needs to continue.

Thomas Putze's sculptures and performances are self-experiments whose goal is always realisation. A visitor to the exhibition recently described his effect as follows: "At first you think, oh how funny or nice, but then it immediately becomes existential and you have to get to the really big issues."

The really big issues, that is the speciality of expedition leader Thomas Putze. For example, the question that we all ask ourselves again and again from the age of about 45 at the latest, the question of the meaning of life: What am I doing all this for? What goals do I have? Are they worth the effort? Do they still mean something to me? Do I need new ones? Or to put it metaphorically: What am I going through the horrors of ice and darkness for - to come back to the title of this event? For what, the reader of Christoph Ransmayr's book asks, did the members of the Austro-Hungarian Arctic expedition toil under inhuman conditions for two years in the 1870s? To discover new land, which they named Emperor Franz Josef Land in honour of their ruler - a rocky group of islands in the Eternal Ice, hostile and forbidding. Deranged souls, unimaginable physical torture for a bit of fame that quickly faded, for national honour that in real life was buried on the battlefields of the First World War at the latest. Was it worth it? Life writes the most beautiful punch lines: The ambitious, even fanatical leader of the expedition no longer attaches importance to the discovery of unknown lands only a few years after his return and becomes - and this really happened - a painter! His fame as a painter of Arctic scenery far exceeds that of the explorer, is more lasting and tangible. As an old man, he returns honours and medals and longs to return to the Eternal Ice as the place of peace and nothingness.

Thomas Putze has chosen this chronicle of failure and searching as the title of his performance: He too leaves his comfort zone and embarks on an expedition into the offside, into the absurd. What insights he will gain is open. We should join his journey, get involved in his experimental set-up, not allow superficial utilitarian thinking and just be there. Thomas Putze once said in an interview: "Without dedication there is no pleasure and thus no art. If this pleasure or even fun is transferred to the audience as energy and feelings and thoughts are set in motion, I am satisfied." So take advantage of this opportunity! Leave your certainties behind and join his expedition. It will definitely be worth it!

Dr Kathrin Reeckmann, 25.01.2014