Dirk Reinartz
Durch die Bank
Deutschland durch die Bank
The bench in and of itself does not exist. It depends on who is sitting on it. And why. Theoretically speaking, there are as many benches as there are people. And, also theoretically, there would be a society in which everyone has his or her place. Utopian. In practical terms, what would more likely happen is that the entire population would be left on the shelf. One feels compelled to distinguish between a bench or a workbench, or in particular a bank (in German, Bank means bench or bank, trans.) where money is at work.
Nowhere are happiness and unhappiness so closely connected as on the bench/at the bank. But happiness is also of a historical nature. And the culture of sitting has a dynamic history, even when we just sit through it. Children of the revolution talk of sit-ins, fathers of stability talk of sitting it out, and Adorno would have agreed with them: the dialectics of the bench/bank. Or more precisely: of the buttocks – it’s a good thing not every punch line must be taken sitting down.
Press text – Steidl Verlag, Göttingen
each Silvergelatine-Print, 25 x 17 cm (30 x 24 cm)
The bench in and of itself does not exist. It depends on who is sitting on it. And why. Theoretically speaking, there are as many benches as there are people. And, also theoretically, there would be a society in which everyone has his or her place. Utopian. In practical terms, what would more likely happen is that the entire population would be left on the shelf. One feels compelled to distinguish between a bench or a workbench, or in particular a bank (in German, Bank means bench or bank, trans.) where money is at work.
Nowhere are happiness and unhappiness so closely connected as on the bench/at the bank. But happiness is also of a historical nature. And the culture of sitting has a dynamic history, even when we just sit through it. Children of the revolution talk of sit-ins, fathers of stability talk of sitting it out, and Adorno would have agreed with them: the dialectics of the bench/bank. Or more precisely: of the buttocks – it’s a good thing not every punch line must be taken sitting down.
Press text – Steidl Verlag, Göttingen
each Silvergelatine-Print, 25 x 17 cm (30 x 24 cm)
