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#5Atelier pH7: may - june 2006 Michel Medinger (LU) lives and works in Luxembourg
8, rue Belle-Vue
L- 5318 Contern
tél. (++ 352) 359 360
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5Michel Medinger is an international artist working and residing in Luxembourg. His work originates from assemblages reminiscent of the isolated progression during the end of the cycle of life. Through his creative vision, images become metaphors, objects are confined within eroded boxes, using focal objects both animal and vegetable in origin. Weathered man-made objects make an easy transition into this world of applied fantasy. His engaging and haunting images recall personal treasure boxes, whose artifacts have a secret power known to him and perhaps viewers of the work. Michel has exhibited in Europe ans the United States and has been published in ZOOM magazine. His work is held in public and private collections including the Polaroid Collection and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
Collector's Fine Print Program 2002, Center for Photographic Art, Carmel.
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contact-printed Van Dyke Brown prints from 4 x 5 inch negatives, on 100% cellulose paper, mounted on 40x50 cm museum quality mat board, ready for framing, #1 to #9: 600,00 EUR Michel Medinger, photographs: the remains of the past
Medinger shoots his subjects from the frontal perspective and uses backlighting and no flash to produce the subtle shadows and sculptured effect he desires. He can usually get the image he wants by the fourth or fifth shot using Polaroid Type 52, Type 53 or Type 55 instant film to "fix the moment" when his assemblages come together.
These assemblages are seen as works of art in themselves. "My friends sometimes tell me I should not be a photographer at all but a sculptor and that I'm always creating sculptures," he says. "But I am caught in my way of thinking and what I care most about is revealing aesthetic beauty through a photograph of high technical quality."
He frequently tones his images, a process that takes advantage of his painting skills when working with Polaroid positive prints. Medinger paints the fixing fluid on the print where he wants to retain tones that range from black to white. Where he omits the fixer, the silver oxidizes over time, creating a sepia tone. When he likes its color, Medinger then paints the entire print with the fixing agent to halt oxidation. And voila!-split tones.
Which brings us back to the question of time. Silver oxidizes, but what else in his work responds to the nonspatial continuum of irreversible events? Is he playing with time, violating it, suspending it when he counterpoises objects that have outgrown their usefulness with skulls and bones that, through his art, will forever endure its ravages?
"Time I can stop, but only for the matter of a second," he says. "I can fix the moment, and that is formally satisfying to me, but time itself is what I find in the object." So, in a sense, time lives for Medinger. It lives in the weathered dolls he discovered with his daughter at a flea market in Metz, in old tools scattered in a workbench drawer and, without fail, in his lasting photographs.
Michel Medinger, who works in the Ministry of the Environment in Luxembourg, exhibits throughout Europe and the U.S., including recent shows at the International Forum, Tokyo; the Musée de l'Etat de la Ville de St. Petersbourg; Musée Ken Damy, Milano; Academia di Belle Arte, Bologna; Galerie Jean-Pierre Lambert, Paris and Galerie Clairefontaine, Luxembourg.
Polaroid Corporation, 2006
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contact-printed Van Dyke Brown prints from 8 x 10 inch negatives, on 100% cellulose paper, mounted on 40x50 cm museum quality mat board, ready for framing, #10 to #16: 900,00 EUR Individual shows
2006 - Luxembourg House, New York
2005 - Stimultania, Strasbourg
2004 - Galerie Forlivese Bertinora, Italie
2003 - Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, USA
2003 - Winfield Gallery, Carmel, California
2003 - Galerie Clairefontaine, Luxembourg
2003 - House of Luxembourg, Berlin
2002 - Galerie Clairefontaine, Luxembourg
1997 - Galerie Clairefontaine, Luxembourg
1996 - Galerie Jean-Pierre Lambert, Paris
1994 - Museo di Fotografia, Milano
1994 - Academia di Bella Arti, Bologna
1994 - Galerie Sunnen, Luxembourg
1992 - Galerie Nei Liicht, Dudelange
1988 - Galerie Municipale Henin - Beaumont
1986 - Galerie Objectiv, Saarbrucken
1985 - Galerie 52, Luxembourg
1983 - Old Coast House Gallery, Pacific Grove, California
Numerous group shows from 1981 to 2006
Publications
The Polaroid Book 2005, Edit. Taschen
Professionele Fotografie n°7, 2005, Pays-Bas
Photographie Contemporaine 2001, Luxembourg
Ottonovecento, La Fotografia Brescia, Italia
Facettes de la Photographie Contemporaine, Collection BCEE, 1997
Nippon Camera, Tokyo n°12, 1997
Collectors Fine Print Programm, 1996, CPA, Carmel, USA
Artistes Luxembourgois d'Aujourd'hui, 1995