WHAT IS ACTUALLY GOING ON HERE by Ludwig Seyfarth Retrospainting exhibition catallogue Ulf Saupe Galerie, Berlin 2009 [...] Those who travel by train often understand little more than "Bahnhof" (railway station). "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof" (literally translatable as: I only understand "railway station" and equivalent to the English idiom: it’s all Spanish to me) is a German expression that is generally used to express a lack of understanding or a misunderstanding. It serves Miguel Ángel Pascual as a kind of motto for his artistic production. "I can see nothing but a railway station", one could say in one of his large-format abstract black-and-white views of station concourses, which Pascual uses as displays on which to affix other images so that his exhibitions become spatial ensembles. A frequent motif is digitally transformed images of unclothed women painted in acrylic. However, the usual function and perspective of such portrayals is undermined. The women, who are usually presented as objects to be viewed, themselves have the camera in their hands in Pascual´s paintings and look voyeuristically so to speak back at the –male- viewer, who no longer knows what role he plays and therefore possibly only understands the word "station". Are we, the viewers who think that we have a good overview of everything, in fact the ones being observed without realising it? Do the protagonists in the picture realise that we are watching them? This question seems senseless because in the end it is not about real, but rather about portrayed people. But the people could be portrayed in such a way that they either appear to respond to the presence of the viewer or are engaged in an activity that absorbs them completely within the sphere of the picture [...] ____________________________ (1) In the history of modern painting, this debate is frequently relevant, in particular in France in the 18th century, where it was greatly discussed on a theoretical level. See also: Michael Fried, Absorption and Theatricality. Painting and Beholder in the age of Diderot, Chicago 1980 <<< Go back