Detlef Günther
How do we recognize coherence and cohesion when all the limitations, all the categorizations,
all the codes and abbreviations only point to a fraction of who and what we are? DG
Detlef Günther is an artist who uses a variety of media codes and is able to express himself in them: in that of paintings and drawings, collages, objects and installations, photographs, video works, and multimedia environments. … Ideally speaking, Günther’s works are about balancing two kinds of boundaries: the boundary between the analog and the digital on the one hand, and between the visible and the invisible on the other. (Christian Kupke)
After studying humanities and communication sciences at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich and the Free University of Berlin (Master’s Degree: M. A.) Detlef Günther studied fine art at the UdK from 1984 to 1990 (Master’s Degree). At the same time he founded the group BOR with the artists Martin Assig, Klaus Hoefs, Oliver Öfelein and Jochen Stenschke. As a freelance artist, Günther worked in the 1990s on the research project “Technical Vision” at the Medieninstitut Berlin (headed by Prof. Dr. Arthur Engelbert). In 1997, he founded “Twosuns Media Development GmbH” and developed the interactive environment system “Enclued” in connection with a new type of camera procedure that records people’s movements in space in three dimensions. Both innovations have been patented by the German and European Patent Office.
Detlef Günther has appeared with about 50 solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad, e. g. at the Haus der Kunst München, Gemeente Museum Helmond (NL), Galerie Kremer-Tengelmann (Cologne/Gelsenkirchen), NGBK Berlin. On behalf of companies and institutions such as Sony Deutschland, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Canon ArtLab in Tokyo and the artist Carsten Nicolai (project: POLAR, Goldene Nica 2001), he has also realized various media projects and installations. Since 2008 Detlef Günther has been holding lectures and seminars on “Genealogy of Image and Imaging Formats in Art and Science” at colleges and universities.
Detlef Günther’s works are represented, among others, in the Artmuseum Gelsenkirchen, the Deutsche Bank Art Collection (Frankfurt), the EON Art Collection, the Ruth and Karl Kremer Collection (NW) and in the Museo degli Angeli (Brolo-Sicily). He lives and works in Berlin.
Alan Remonta
Alan Remonta was born in New York City in 1989. His father’s family had emigrated from Italy in the 1930s; his mother was from an old Irish family that had been in New York for four generations. Alan grew up on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where his parents owned an apartment. His father was a securities trader who worked in the World Trade Center. Alan’s mother died when he was just 7 years old. On September 11, 2001, Alan’s father was working in the WTC North Tower. His body was never recovered.
After his father’s death, Alan moved to Brooklyn to live with his uncle. Alan’s uncle was an art historian who worked for a small art book publisher in Greenwich Village. It was he who instilled in Alan a love and passion for art, specifically painters and architects from the early Renaissance period. It was during the first decade of the 21st century that Alan also became interested in the use of multimedia techniques in art. In part for this reason, he applied to the Pratt Institute and was accepted for admission.
With the encouragement of his uncle, Alan decided to take a trip to Europe and visit Scrovegni Chapel. While in the chapel, he met a German woman who was studying art history. She was staying in Venice and took him to a party there, where he met Detlef Günther.
From this point on, Remonta and Günther had extensive conversations via e-mail and tried to meet in Berlin whenever possible. Having inherited money from his father, Alan at some point decided that he needed to travel the world in search of further inspiration. During this time he came up with many ideas and concepts that he sketched but never implemented. In 2018, he decided to return to Berlin in order to work with Günther, after which the two began collaborating on a range of concepts for installations.
Having now been developed to an initial logical conclusion, the complete – yet still ongoing – work is being presented for the first time in the Nakedness knows no Stipulation project. The project is being organized by Detlef Günther, as Alan Remonta lives a reclusive life, prefers to stay in the background, and therefore does not wish to appear in person at the opening or closing of any exhibition of this work. As of 2021, Alan Remonta divides his time between New York and Berlin when he’s not traveling elsewhere – with Günther acting as his “representative.”
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