C-Print
180 × 250 cm
Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, Vaduz / Purchased with funds from Stiftung Freunde des Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein
Interiors are the red thread that runs through Höfer's entire photographic oeuvre. All the more surprising, then, that the artist has devoted herself to the exterior of the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein's architecture. As a visitor, you will have walked along this façade before you entered the building. The outer shell is the remarkable thing about the architecture: a largely enclosed block – with no expansion joints – of concrete poured in-situ, whose dark colouring was created by adding soot and iron oxide. Chunks of black basalt rock and green, red and white river pebbles were also added, becoming visible in the course of the elaborate polishing process (which kept the craftsmen busy for five months): the result is a softly reflective, slightly wavy terrazzo finish. Höfer's photographs not only visualise the situation of the museum, but also the peculiarities of its body, surface and materiality.
Höfer photographed the subjects of her Liechtenstein series of works, created in 2021, with a few exceptions using a large-format digital camera. To create her images at the various locations and spaces, she mostly used available light, without any spotlights for illumination, which in many cases required long exposure times.
The photographs in Liechtenstein reflect Höfer's ongoing examination of scenes of public cultural life and architecture. Her latest works testify to an increasing level of abstraction, in which the relevant aspects are colour, surface and form and their dissolution. These photographs have an inherent quality of sensibility, while emanating a sense of calm.
A member of the Düsseldorf 'Becher School', this acclaimed artist has previously created a number of site-specific groups of images, for example those made in Brussels and Düsseldorf. Her series created in and for Liechtenstein follows in this tradition.
Christiane Meyer-Stoll
'I am interested in architecture from the outside but I can see that whenever I like. Whereas I can only see what is concealed behind it when I enter the building. I was always intrigued by the idea of shooting what lies hidden behind the façade.'
Candida Höfer
Candida Höfer: 'Ich möchte etwas zeigen, das eigentlich nicht modern ist, etwas, das eine Langlebigkeit hat', in: Kunstforum International, Bd. 153: Choreografie der Gewalt, January to March 2001, p. 280–291.
