From the mid-1970s, Marcel Odenbach has created an extensive body of tapes, performances, drawings and installations, establishing himself as one of Germany’s foremost artists in the realm of video. Through his work, he delves into a thought-provoking discourse on the construction of self in relation to the representations of history and culture.
For Odenbach, identity is rooted in the mysterious realm of sight – both being seen and seeing. By placing himself, and consequently the viewer, in the roles of observer, witness, or voyeur, he undertakes a charged exploration of subjectivity within the realms of personal and cultural memory, individual and collective history, and the past and present.
In his investigation of the construction of self in relation to the psychological and cultural spheres, from male identity and sexuality to the trauma of German history, Odenbach creates a symbolic theater of memory. This includes elements of his own autobiography, as well as appropriated elements from cinema, archives, and mass media. In many of his tapes, he employs a signature technique of dividing the screen into horizontal or vertical panels, serving as a metaphor for the masking and fragmentation of the self. Through this distancing device, he simultaneously limits and expands the viewer’s field of vision, revealing and concealing. Enigmatic and fragmentary images, often seen through censoring black bars or rhythmically juxtaposed in panelled triptychs, form systems of meaning that hint at subconscious associations.
Using a concise and effective approach, works like The Distance Between Myself and My Losses (1983) convey powerful metaphors for the fleeting nature of sight and self-awareness. They shed light on the tense relationship between identity and desire, in the context of history and culture. Odenbach frequently combines symbols of German “high” culture and historical mythologies – classical and Romantic music and opera, Western literature, art history and architecture, archival films – with personal references, elements from non-Western cultures, and images from Hollywood cinema and popular media culture.
www.ftn-books.com has one title on Odenbach’s works now available.
