Michael Nowottny

17. April 2011 bis 01. Mai 2011

The artist Michael Nowottny writes about the time he spent on Föhr:

 

“My stay on Föhr was wonderful and very productive. The works I created there have been incorporated into my project GESTRANDET (Stranded), a long-term project in which I reflect on Melville’s novel “Moby Dick”. The project series began in 2003 with the pictorial mise-en-scène “Einmal Kapitän Ahab” (Being Captain Ahab for once) and its final stage started on Föhr. The study of the history of German whaling, the work on site with the easel in the mudflats, and the peace and quiet of studio helped the overall concept of the GESTRANDET series gestate. In 2015 I finished this project with the filmic mise-en-scène “Whale Hunting in the Rhine” in Duisburg, which refers to the beluga whale that appeared in the Rhine in 1966 and was hunted down in the port of Duisburg. In the meantime, additional works created during my time as artist-in-residence on Föhr have already been on view in Cologne, Dresden, Hamburg, Leverkusen, and Duisburg. I have also documented my stay on Föhr in a 2012 portfolio titled “Ahab ist nicht böse”, or “Ahab is not evil”.