Trauma (the book)
"Trauma" is a 176-page half-linen hardcover book, published on the occasion of my first institutional solo show -- at Museum Angerlehner in 2021.
The book includes over sixty images, as well as texts in German and English by Andrea Kopranovic, Jaqueline Scheiber ("minusgold") and Günther Oberhollenzer. It covers works created since 2006, and also features beautiful exhibition views (by Simon Veres) as well as a portrait photo (by Milena Nowak).
~~~
ABOUT TRAUMA AND MY WORK
The book casts a wide, dim circle around topics of consciousness: from dream interpretation to psychoanalysis, from individual to social and political dynamics. Its works repeatedly focus on psychological symptoms of psychotrauma: body dissociation, depersonalization, amnesia, fatigue, compulsions, etc.
Such symptoms cannot be clearly depicted apart from clichés, because they do not offer clear images: the truth of a person is not merely revealed by their surface. Therefore, many of my works appear to be everyday illustrations: someone is sleeping, pottering, planting, fishing; the images do not articulate the reason for these actions, or whether they are done consciously or subconsciously - but they often appear symbolically charged.
The sitter's introspective gaze indicates an inner communication to which we viewers cannot listen. In this respect, viewers are always excluded from certain aspects and dynamics of the images - like trauma victims, who can be denied clear access to their own bodies, memories, emotions, etc. due to dissociation.
~~~
ABOUT THE BOOK AND ITS CONTENT
The book has been designed by Mischa Guttmann, who is both a graphics designer and a sculptor; as a result, Mischa "makes objects, not just books". In this case, a black-in-black hardcover is the base for a gravure-like hot-foil stamping, which embraces the actual book's contents.
That content is diverse: my art is connected to lyrical fragments, and discussed in three texts. Where the exhibition lets you physically experience many of my works (whether large-scale paintings or more sensual drawings), the book adds additional layers of meaning -- and can travel directly into your hands.
"Christian Bazant-Hegemark: Trauma" is published by "Verlag Bibliothek der Provinz", and costs €30. ISBN 9-783991-260202
~~~
EXCERPTS FROM THE BOOK'S TEXTS:
"Many works deal with existence as something being thrown into the world, with loneliness and lack of communication, with the introverted, sunken human being. Do they harbor the titular trauma?" (Günther Oberhollenzer, "The Emotional Possibility Spaces of Christian Bazant-Hegemark")
"The immediate encounter with works that at first sight do not satisfy any sensationalism, and in many cases do not use the usual visual language of pain, expands the idea that we associate with the rupture. Despite their spatial weight, the works often depict moments far removed from tragedy. It is as if the silence between the lines has been held under a magnifying glass. What becomes visible are not the bold headlines, the hand-wringing cries for help, or even forms of violence." (Jaqueline Scheiber, "Trauma")
"In some works [...], the artist prepares stages for us and, with the theatrical gesture of the stage set, creates an additional level of distance that allows us to observe and reflect without shame. The imagined, fictive space opens the possibility to introduce detached narratives and to “replay” them in a way. The individual experience thus becomes a collective one, which is particularly incisive as soon as we enter the political domain. There, transgressions are negotiated, taboos are broken and questioned, and current events are being investigated." (Andrea Kopranovic, "Trauma and Space. Of Manifestations and Contingencies")
Shipping starts May 10th, 2021.
