Elzel / Müller: Land

in collaboration with Jana Müller /
c-prints,
3 each 72,5 × 87,5 cm,
28 each 34,5 × 42,5 cm,
framed, 2009

in collaboration with Jana Müller/
Background

Image: 01
Date: 09-11-2007
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße / Church

Image: 01
Date: 09-11-2007
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße / Church

Image: 02
Date: 10-05-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 84 / 86

Image: 02
Date: 10-05-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 84 / 86

Image: 04
Date: 11-23-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 78

Image: 04
Date: 11-23-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 78

Image: 08
Date: 08-04-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 114

Image: 08
Date: 08-04-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 114

Image: 27
Date: 09-19-2007
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 17

Image: 27
Date: 09-19-2007
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 17

Image: 11
Date: 09-30-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 57

Image: 11
Date: 09-30-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 57

Image: 28
Date: 08-14-2008
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 41

Image: 28
Date: 08-14-2008
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 41

Image: 29
Date: 02-18-2007
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 112

Image: 29
Date: 02-18-2007
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 112

Image: 21
Date: 08-01-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 69

Image: 21
Date: 08-01-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 69

Image: 19
Date: 05-16-2007
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 65

Image: 19
Date: 05-16-2007
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 65

Image: 17
Date: 12-07-2008
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 82

Image: 17
Date: 12-07-2008
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 82

Image: 31
Date: 11-07-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 106 – 110

Image: 31
Date: 11-07-2006
Heuersdorf, Dorfstraße 106 – 110

 

The work Land is dedicated to a village, which is in a state of disintegration. One sees images of houses, barns, gardens, streets. At first glance, these photographs emanate a serene tranquility. Only on second glance do viewers notice that the idyll is deceptive: the houses are abandoned, some windows are bricked up, no one is to be seen. The photographs by Wiebke Elzel and Jana Müller of the work Land show houses of the village Heuersdorf in Saxony, which was systematically and completely demolished between 2006 – 2008 to make the underlying brown coal deposit usable. In these pictures, the ghostly moment inherent in every photograph, which consists in the fact that the object as it appears in the pictures can never be captured again, is heightened by the knowledge of the real disappearance of the village: the motifs shown actually no longer exist.