FRANK WIEBE - OUTPOST MAPPINGS

E S K Is your work then intended as political art, despite the fact that you make use of abstract forms? Do you believe that this aes- thetic approach is sufficient to visualize the scope of your con- cerns about the global decline of values? Would one not need oth- er images or media to arouse the viewer, such as those provided by photography or films today? F W Your objection is justified. The question, which medium is most suitable for this is difficult to answer. I am aware that there are other formal possibilities of expression. Intentions are reinforced through continuous work. This is important: I’m not interested in depicting Medusa’s raft. In any case, the option of representing a recurring moment in the history of mankind, and doing so with the means of painting, harbors difficulties. But credibility is a prerequi- site for the ability of representation. E S K In other words, you are concerned with credibility and authen- ticity? Indeed, it is not easy to depict this, let’s say, “recurring moment in human history” with abstract visual means. In a figurative manner, Albrecht Altdorfer impressively represented this moment in his work “The Battle of Alexander at Issus.” His painting, which is part of a cy- cle of history paintings for Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, portrays a sit- uation that defined world history: the victory of Alexander the Great over King Darius III of Persia. It is the depiction of an explosive histori- cal moment, in the midst of the turmoil of battle, located in a so-called world landscape (with mountains, oceans, and so forth, implying uni- versal validity) beneath a sky that spans the entire scene. This sky refers to the cosmic dimension of the representation. Both the time frame of the occurrence of the historical event (330 B.C.) and of the painting’s creation (1529, when the first Turkish siege of Vienna took place) are significant for this. Politics and ideology are present in the painting in manifold shapes: not only the battle, but also the rising sun on the right side of the composition and the waning crescent moon on the left side indicate the victory of the Occident over the Orient. Furthermore, they are references to a latently present problem of our civilization dating back to antiquity. The trompe-l’œil panel bearing an inscription on the upper edge of the painting underscores the histor- ical-topical character of the representation. F W As a teenager, I had a poster of Altdorfer’s “Battle of Alexander” in a portfolio; I was fascinated by the surreal magne- tism of the image, the cosmic sunset in this gigantic blue firmament. E S K Regardless of the fact that today such a representation would necessarily be composed in an entirely different manner, both in terms of form and content, are you seeking to imbue your works with the same richness of meaning? If so, do you regard your depictions more as ‚history paintings’ in a general sense, or rather as a current assess- ment of an existent state of affairs? F W In this sense, my work transcends the boundaries of time. It does not depict any specific instance of aggression or violence, but rather represents the conflicts that have taken place, are currently tak- ing place, and will take place in the future. It addresses the ever-pres- ent human disposition for conflict. My latest series of works is titled “Outpost Mappings” and revolves around the mapping of outposts that confront each other in perpetual conflict. We conceive of our- selves as the center of the universe, but our actions do not adequately correspond to this. The distanced form of representation is an expres- sion of a certain fatalism, which moves us out of the center we deem to occupy. I try to transfer the action into a remote sphere to enable us to observe our absurd activities from a quasi-cosmic perspective. 37