Annette Kelm Franz Kafka, Amerika. Kurt Wolff Verlag, München, 1927. Einbandgestaltung Georg Salter, 2020
Archival pigment print
70 x 52,5 cm (unframed)
71,4 x 53,9 x 4 cm (framed)
71,4 x 53,9 x 4 cm (framed)
Edition of 6
Annette Kelm's series of works entitled Die Bücher (EN The Books) depicts 104 individual books banned during the National Socialist rule in Germany. Many of them were burned at public events in May 1933.
Generally shown life-sized (or slightly enlarged), the series keeps to one format, with each composition centering the book against a white background. A narrow cast shadow reveals the publication as three-dimensional object, sometimes with traces of wear and tear visible on its front, such as small tears in the dust jacket or small stains and annotations on the cover.
Kelm's series commemorates the censorship, condemnation and removal of books from German life during Nazi rule which found an early culmination in the nationwide public book burnings in May 1933 but continued through 1945. While photographs documenting the book burnings generally show pyres with an indiscriminate mass of papers or unidentified books being flung into the flames, Kelm's photos present each book individually, with a studied care and attention akin to portrait photography. To emphasize this analogy, information about authors, publishers and designers of the book are the work's title.
Each portrayal stands not only for the fate of its creators but also represents the circumstances of the publication's survival: Someone held onto this book, risking persecution, perhaps their life and that of others. As such, the books link many destinies, but can also be seen as survivors themselves, an impression made all the more poignant by the visible traces of their use.
The books also refer more generally to the loss enacted on German culture. The series includes publication by well-known authors and designers, as well as lesser-known or largely forgotten writers, from many genres, among them literature, novels, children's books, non-fiction and academic titles. Paradoxically, the uniformity of the series’s format, giving each publication the same space, highlights each work’s individuality, by implication granting each act of censorship the same importance, each title the same respect. While some of the publications—and their authors and designers—survived the suppression, many did not. This silencing of the vibrant pre-1933 publishing scene can also be intuited from Kelm's transformation of the books into an image: they cannot be opened and read.
Die Bücher was conceived on occasion of Kelm's participation in the group exhibition Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, curated by Mirjam Zadoff and Nicolaus Schafhausen when Kelm, on a site visit, came across archival materials, including banned books, at the NS Dokumentation Centre in Munich. She decided to reverse perspectives, the artist has said, focusing not on the perpetrators of the burning but to the victims of these actions, the books themselves. As there is no central depository of books banned during the rule of the NS regime, Kelm sourced the books from private collections and smaller institutions.
COLLECTIONS:
Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Kunsthalle zu Kiel
MUDAM Luxembourg
Sprengel Museum Hannover
NS-Dokumentationszentrum, Munich
Stiftung Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, Hamburg
Generally shown life-sized (or slightly enlarged), the series keeps to one format, with each composition centering the book against a white background. A narrow cast shadow reveals the publication as three-dimensional object, sometimes with traces of wear and tear visible on its front, such as small tears in the dust jacket or small stains and annotations on the cover.
Kelm's series commemorates the censorship, condemnation and removal of books from German life during Nazi rule which found an early culmination in the nationwide public book burnings in May 1933 but continued through 1945. While photographs documenting the book burnings generally show pyres with an indiscriminate mass of papers or unidentified books being flung into the flames, Kelm's photos present each book individually, with a studied care and attention akin to portrait photography. To emphasize this analogy, information about authors, publishers and designers of the book are the work's title.
Each portrayal stands not only for the fate of its creators but also represents the circumstances of the publication's survival: Someone held onto this book, risking persecution, perhaps their life and that of others. As such, the books link many destinies, but can also be seen as survivors themselves, an impression made all the more poignant by the visible traces of their use.
The books also refer more generally to the loss enacted on German culture. The series includes publication by well-known authors and designers, as well as lesser-known or largely forgotten writers, from many genres, among them literature, novels, children's books, non-fiction and academic titles. Paradoxically, the uniformity of the series’s format, giving each publication the same space, highlights each work’s individuality, by implication granting each act of censorship the same importance, each title the same respect. While some of the publications—and their authors and designers—survived the suppression, many did not. This silencing of the vibrant pre-1933 publishing scene can also be intuited from Kelm's transformation of the books into an image: they cannot be opened and read.
Die Bücher was conceived on occasion of Kelm's participation in the group exhibition Tell me about yesterday tomorrow, curated by Mirjam Zadoff and Nicolaus Schafhausen when Kelm, on a site visit, came across archival materials, including banned books, at the NS Dokumentation Centre in Munich. She decided to reverse perspectives, the artist has said, focusing not on the perpetrators of the burning but to the victims of these actions, the books themselves. As there is no central depository of books banned during the rule of the NS regime, Kelm sourced the books from private collections and smaller institutions.
COLLECTIONS:
Sammlung zeitgenössischer Kunst der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
Kunsthalle zu Kiel
MUDAM Luxembourg
Sprengel Museum Hannover
NS-Dokumentationszentrum, Munich
Stiftung Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, Hamburg