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HAUNCH OF VENISON Haunch of Venison Partners Ltd. Registered Office:
6 Haunch of Venison Yard London W1K 5ES England Registered in England
No.04421085 off Brook Street London W1K 5ES England F+44 (0)20 7495
4050 info@haunchofvenison.com haunchofvenison.com PRESS RELEASE (January
2003) Wim Wenders Pictures from the Surface of the Earth March 12
- April 15 Haunch of Venison is delighted to present a selection of
images from Pictures from the Surface of the Earth, a touring exhibition
of photographs by internationally renowned auteur filmmaker and artist
Wim Wenders. Since 1983 Wenders has taken still images of towns and
landscapes across the United States, Havana, the forests and temples
in Japan, Jerusalem, the coast of Galilee and the deserted expanses
of the Australian outback, which are loosely linked by their pervading
sense of transience. The exhibition comes to London from the Museum
Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin and the Guggenheim Bilbao, and will continue
on to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, in June 2003. The exhibition
is curated by Heiner Bastian. Wim Wenders is a multi-faceted artist:
an engraver, painter, actor, writer and one of the most successful
contemporary filmmakers. He first made his name as a leading director
of the New German Cinema in the 1970s, and became a cult figure on
the international film scene by the mid 1980s. It was in 1983, while
scouting for locations for Paris, Texas (1984), that he began to use
photography as an art medium in its own right. In his own words, “Photography
lets you capture the essence of a place the first time you see it….
Before you see the picture, you feel it coming to you, you hear its
call. Landscapes sometimes are dying to tell their stories, to pass
them on….” Wenders’ photographs evoke the history and
idiosyncrasies of each distinct place he visits. Shot straight on,
his huge, wild landscapes of the American West are frequently void
of humanity, with closer shots capturing signs pointing to places
that have long since disappeared, empty shops and deserted gas stations.
His vast panoramic images of Australia reveal both a fascination with
and humility toward the overwhelming dimensions of that country, while
those of Havana juxtapose the city’s past colonial grandeur with
its crumbling present. Each image works within its own context, but
together they elucidate the existential orientation of Wenders’
eye. Born in 1945 in Düsseldorf, Germany, Wenders first studied
medicine and philosophy before dropping out in 1966 to move to Paris
to study painting. In this period he became a frequent visitor to
the Cinemathèque Française and one year later returned
to Germany to enrol in the Higher School of Film & Television
in Munich, while also writing film criticism for several magazines.
Soon he was directing his own films and in 1977 he made The American
Friend, a film that attracted the attention of Francis Ford Coppola, who then brought him to the US. His many critically acclaimed films have included Wings of Desire (1987), Paris, Texas (1984) and Buena Vista Social Club (1999), as well as numerous short art-house films. Since 1986, his photographs have previously been exhibited internationally at venues including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark; the Shibuya Seibu Department Store, Tokyo and Goethe Institutes worldwide. Numerous books have been published on Wenders’ films, of his writings and on his photography including Written in the West (1987), Once (1993) and Wim Wenders: Photos (1996). A Wenders film retrospective will run concurrently with the exhibition at a London cinema. A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition. For further press information and visuals please contact: Pernilla Holmes Haunch of Venison, 6 Haunch of Venison Yard, London W1K 5ES Phone: +44 (0)20 7495 5050, fax: +44 (0)20 7495 4050 Email: pernilla@haunchofvenison.com
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