Memory Artwork – Jochen Gerz

Memory Artwork – Jochen Gerz

Understanding the relationship between contemporary artworks and their contribution to the memory of essential events to people and humanity at large is the core motivation to Jochen Gerz’s work. The life and work of this artist are deeply embedded in this complicated relationship, especially on the current artworks that are more of an impression than expression. However, for Gerz, the memory is in the people, and not in the pictures and other artworks. At the heart of Gerz’s work and principles in artwork are the roles and contributions of art in processing and memorizing the traumatizing events in life. The center of this artist’s work is on memorialization discourse and how his conceptual artistry contributes to the understanding of, relationship, and identification with the past traumatizing events. This is achieved through the application of traditional monumental sculptures that indicate the socio-political, economic, and cultural perspectives of a given time in history. Gerz has focused on the conceptual artistry that connects the past to the present through memorization and remembrance.

As an internationally-recognized conceptual artist, Gerz’s main point of view regarding the role of art in stimulating the memory of the traumatizing past has made him a brand. This is based on the strong relationship across different factors and concepts as artist, environment, artwork, and the viewer. Therefore, the artist questions the prominence of this relationship through the understanding of rituals in the past centuries. Besides, he also probes on their relevance to the contemporary generation. Through his sculpture, installations, videos, and photography, Gerz has attempted to clarify the memorialization role of the artworks within the conceptual art school of thought. The relationship between history and memory is based on how the artworks elicit reactions of the traumatizing, exciting, and cultural events that still bear relevance to contemporary society. This is based on the freedom that Gerz’s art enjoy, which breaks it away from the parameters of genre normative. Instead, he focuses his artwork on the essence of audience participation that crosses the boundaries between viewers and the objects. This level of freedom and active participation of the audience creates the new essence of memory and how the people are essential elements of remembrance.

Biography, Work, and Public Participation

Born in 1940 in Berlin, Gerz has lived through German, Paris, and Ireland culture, hence putting him at the epicenter of the cultural and social aspects of artwork and memory. His education has also focused on literature, prehistory, and sinology across different European institutions, thus giving him the ideal background to create memory through photography, video, and sculpture, among others. His work experience has seen him venture into photography, video, sculpture, and installations, thus creating an ideal resource for media outreach and consumption. The latest works include 2-3 Street, The Square of the European Promise, and Salviamo La Luna, among others. All these pieces captured the realities and the connection between the past and the present through memory. The trend in Gerz’s works is that he combines different media techniques to elicit reactions and initiate memorialization perspectives. This principle goes beyond the theories and models that define the art genre. Gerz enjoys the freedom to manipulate the different mass media and the participation of the people in commemoration of various events. Thus, it gives him the required freedom to influence the population’s thoughts, imaginations, and memory of past events.

Gerz’s artworks focused on establishing public participation in interpreting the incidents, activities, and outcomes concerning memory. In most instances, Gerz focused on grand themes such as ethics, symbolic value, and history, among others. This is evident in “Salviamo La Luna,” where human participation and the mass media are used to underscore the historical perspectives of the community. On the other hand, Gerz used the idea of symbolic value in “Monument against Fascism” and “Monument against Racism” to instill the memories that people had regarding these traumatizing events. However, his main point of view was that the memory aspects were dependent on the people and mass media as opposed to the artwork. It is the people that give the interpretation of the artwork and relate to the themes that are projected and advanced in different projects. There were strong connections between Gerz’s artworks and the historical perspectives of issues such as racism, slavery, fascism, and abuse of human rights. This is manifested in such work as “Fundamental Rights Square,” which demonstrates the struggles to achieve the liberties and other issues in the Bill of Rights. He appears universal in his appeals to the global audience by understanding different cultures.

The Counter-Monumental Approach

The main idea that Gerz employs is the activation of the mass media and the people to participate in the creation and definition of different artworks. This is evident in the significant projects that he has created in Germany, England, Italy, France, and Austria, among other regions. This gives him the global appeal in understanding the contemporary people through connection to past events. The essence is that he employs the counter-monument approach to recreate the new sense of reality through the people and media, unlike in the previous beliefs and genres. Gerz’s approach is acceptable to many people globally, especially that the people understand their history more than the art can manifest. The artwork’s primary influence is to stimulate the thoughts and create a counter-monumental perspective in establishing the relationships. For instance, in the “Square of the European Promise,” Gerz invites the Europeans to become authors and publishers. This is the essence where people are stimulated to take part in their understanding of the historical beliefs and events and how they resonate with them. It is this method that counters the monumental beliefs and models, hence making Gerz and idol in the understanding of the artwork.

The prominence of Viewers and Media

Focusing on the artist’s memory alone would give the artworks a domineering role among the audiences, hence making them passive viewers. However, in Gerz’s case, the memory is created by the people and mass media in influencing the opinion regarding specific activities and events. Therefore, the essence of consciousness is a product of the stimulation that the artwork instills on the people. This culminates into ideal remembrance and memorialization of the past events, both good and bad. The main goal is putting the audience or the people at the forefront of the different video, sculpture, and photography projects to capture the realities and memories. There are pertinent questions that Gerz’s work seeks to answer regarding contemporary perceptions and beliefs on art. The practicality of debates and the radical beliefs are well attested to in the projects. Moreover, Gerz answers the need for the prominence of the audience in the reconciliation of the differences to uncover the persistent similarities. Accordingly, Gerz’s artwork seeks to reconcile the different aspects of art, war, peace, and memory to create the semblance from the perspective of the audience.

Gerz’s perception is that the artistic process should contain an open, collaborative, and public participatory initiative that enhances the reception. In this regard, the situation is to create a space or gap in the works for the people to fulfill through their creative memory processes and the utilization of the power of media and people. The partial memories and objectives are usually revisited by the people and media to create a high level of involvement and collaboration as an integral part of artwork presentation and interpretation. Therefore, memory serves as an essential component of the artistic process as it invites the people to actively participate in the interpretation of the art based on the historical understanding of the themes. The works are produced for the living to conceptualize, and lots of issues, concepts, and details are left hanging to ascertain the required perspectives. Through the idea of counter-monument, Gerz seeks to influence people and empower them to become creative and involved in shaping their living status. This is achieved through the creation of ideal platforms for the advancement of knowledge and memory of the events propagated by the artwork. The essence of public authorship through the themes manifested in the artworks is an integral tool in Gerz’s artworks.

In conclusion, Jochen Gerz was born in Berlin in 1940 and is an ideal concept artist that focuses on the relationship between memory and history. This is achieved through the artworks such as video, photography, and sculpture, among others. Gerz’s work gives prominence to people, mass media, and the essence of self-authorship through the stimulation of their creative thoughts. Public authorship is achieved when the artworks have gaps and missing information for the population to fill based on their memory and its relation to history and artwork. The application of counter-monumental perspectives ensures that the artwork is inspiring, motivating, and creating an environment where people are creative and connected to their history through memory. The role of the artwork is to inspire the thoughts and imaginations in the long run, which is the core aspect of Gerz’s theory in the artwork. Therefore, memory, prominence of people and mass media, and the concept of counter-monument are essential in understanding this artist’s models.