ABOUT

I was born 1973 in St.Gallen, a town in the eastern part of Switzerland. Since early in life I had a strong affinity for the visual arts; as an autodidact I have developed my basic visual vocabulary trough drawing and painting (pastel, acrylic). In the nineties I experimented with combining photography and painting. My affinity for photography was fortified during travels through Europe, Asia, the US Mainland and Hawai'i, where I intensely pursued landscape photography. In 1996, on a solo backpack trip on the wild Na Pali coast of Kauai, Hawai'i when I was more concerned about running out of film than about running out of water purifying tablets, I realized photography had become an obsession. - This anecdote marks the point in time when I began my journey as a dedicated autodidact in photography.

In the following years I intensified my focus on the development of a personal visual expression. Over time abstraction and a tendency towards minimalism have become common features of my photographic works, however the concrete nature of the motives was never completely denied.. Eventually my interest in the seeming documentary aspect of photographs lessened and at last became something I attempted to overcome: I increasingly sought to transcend the particularity of the concrete motive and the moment of light capture. This in order to uncover deeper layers beneath the conceptualised surface of phenomenal reality; these deeper layers may ultimately be amorphous matter devoid of meaning but - for some - loaded with a quality of the metaphysical.

In 2004 I began my photographic series 'URBAN CONTEMPLATIONS', which is still ongoing. In these photographs architectural formations appear as detached from their urban environment: Nothing reminds of the fast-paced dynamics commonly associated with the city; besides shadows on walls and clouds in the sky there is no salient evidence of time. This near 'elimination of time' is intended to facilitate the contemplation of space. In these photographs I seek to transcend the individual and specific architectural features of the particular structures, in that their superordinate space invading and space dividing quality is emphasised and translated into two-dimensional self-contained compositions. My affinity for architectural structures was originally inspired by my interest in the philosophy of mind: architectural structures - in representing anthropogenic formations - may be considered as material monuments intimately relating to the question of 'mental causation' in the physical world. As my personal motivation for the series this idea is latent in the images, however it is not attempted to be explicitly expressed; these photographs are no message, nevertheless they contain one. Importantly my photographs as objects within an environment do not strive for justification by forcing any information upon their viewer - rather they simply 'are'; their potential to function as objects for contemplation is entirely optional. In this regard these works relate to the information overabundance of our times - they function antagonistically, or even as an antidote. In the metaphorical sense my works seek to expand mental space rather than fill it.

As of the mid 1990ies I increasingly explored the possibilities of computer-aided image editing. During my search for new visual expressions a number of experimental series emerged. Between 2006 and 2010 - about a decade after my very first digital experiments - I decided to continue and evolve selected series of computer-edited works.

The 'NEOTECTURES' are a series of images which are based on digitally edited photographic material. 'Neotecture' is a neologism created for these works and was attained via modification of the term 'architecture'; in ancient Greek language 'archi-' refers to 'original (first in time), beginning, first cause, origin, ancient, primitive, from the beginning; most basic' while 'neo-' refers to 'new, recent, current, young'. The Neotectures are newly arranged photographic information derived from architectural structures - thus they represent artefacts of artefacts. For the observer the claim inherent to the photographic material of referring to an extract of 'reality' clashes with the knowledge about the actual impossibility of the newly composed entity. This clash induces a creative act in the observer, giving rise to a subjective reality, which is based on the familiar but goes way beyond it. In the creative act of viewing, the "Neotectures" inevitably become objects for projection; mental projections may include thoughts about human creativity at the intersection between the possible and impossible, between progress and utopia.
 

My professional background in medicine and particularly my work in brain research on altered states of consciousness have had a constructive influence on my activity in the visual arts. My personal interest in the philosophy and science of consciousness has proven to me as a valuable source of inspiration and increasingly influenced my approach to art; and vice versa, examination and contemplation of art has helped me gain insights into certain aspects of consciousness. Today I know that I will remain dedicated to the visual arts.   - Marco Benz

EXHIBITIONS

Galleria, St.Gallen, Switzerland, 1992
Herz Zentrum Hirslanden, Zürich, Switzerland, 2005
Photo 06, Maag Event Hall, Zürich, Switzerland, 2006
Photo 07, Maag Event Hall, Zürich, Switzerland, 2007
ewz-selection, EWZ, Zürich, Switzerland, 2008
Photo 08, Maag Event Hall, Zürich, Switzerland, 2008

FORMER STATEMENTS

"My photographic vision and intention has increasingly become influenced by my interest in the philosophy and science of consciousness - specifically the nature of the relationship between "mind" and "matter" - and my activity in brain research on altered states of consciousness. - currently I explore the potential of photographs to act as interfaces between outer, physical and inner, mental realities of contemplativeness."

2004, at the beginning of the series 'urban contemplations'
 

"In transcending the particularity of the moment of light capture my photographs attempt to provide the observer with an intuition of timelessness. Arising contemplative experience may lead to higher order abstract mental concepts which are less bound to specific transient, finite, and concrete embodiment. Such mental concepts may rather be about the essence of reality than reality itself".

2005, 'urban contemplations'
 

"Our natural drive to conceptualise and label phenomenal reality helps us to understand it, but at the same time can prevent us from really seeing it."

2007

© Marco Antonio Benz 2004 - 2010

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