Case Studies in Falling with paper
probably a project to be continued.
Stop-motion film, DVD, monitor, loop
Pointe
The stop-motion film Pointe stages a single A4 sheet of paper as a precariously balanced body performing a choreography reminiscent of ballet en pointe. In its fragile upright position, the paper evokes the grace and lightness of a ballet dancer, while at the same time remaining constantly on the verge of tipping over or being carried away by the slightest external force. The inherent instability of the material thus becomes the central aesthetic element of the work.
Through the gradual rotation of the sheet around its own axis and the changing reflections of light from frame to frame, a shimmering, almost immaterial appearance emerges. This interplay of light and surface evokes associations with the dynamic light performances of dancer Loïe Fuller, whose work was likewise characterised by the transformation of the body through light.
The work condenses the paradoxical situation of a body maintaining its balance against its physical conditions, thereby revealing the fundamental impossibility of stable self-support. At the same time, Pointe reflects on the supposedly documentary character of the photographic image: by creating movement, balance and continuity solely through the montage of individual photographs, the film exposes the constructed and potentially deceptive nature of the medium.
Hahnemühle baryta fine art inkjet print, 50 x 60 cm, mounted on Alu Dibond, framed
installation view at group show V, gallery Levy, Berlin, 2015
installation view at Auferstehungskirche, Köln, 2015
Dompteuse De Papier
The photographic series Dompteuse de Papier comprises eight photographs of an A4 sheet of paper at the moment of landing, exploring its fleeting transformation into form somewhere between control and chance. In an experimental setting, a blank sheet is repeatedly released and captured in brief, barely reproducible poses.
In the transition between falling and landing, the paper appears as a temporary sculpture whose form exists only in the moment of its emergence. A hand intervenes in a guiding gesture, evoking the apparatus of a puppet theatre. At the same time, it becomes a visible gesture of the artist’s hand—not a neutral intervention, but a performative act that marks authorship and exposes the process of shaping the image. Under this direction, the sheet performs a movement reminiscent of ballet en pointe: seven attempts fail, and only once does a stable pose succeed.
The repeated attempt addresses a central aspect of photographic practice: the search for the “decisive moment” as an ideal point at which time, form and meaning converge. The series, however, undermines this logic by presenting the decisive moment not as a singular, given instant, but as the result of a sequence of approximations, repetitions and failed attempts. What appears decisive is not a moment of isolated evidence, but the constructed outcome of an experimental setup.
At the same time, the perception of the material shifts. In the photographic fixation, the fragile and fleeting sheet of paper appears as a comparatively cumbersome body. The series thus makes visible the difference between event and image.
The focus is not on success, but on the repetition of failure. The “perfect” moment remains the exception and becomes stable only through the image.
Only by chance did one image capture the perfect en pointe position.
a series of 7 images plus 1 single image
installation view at Rheinland-Pfalz Triennale, Trier, 2026
Blue Anima
Blue Anima is a series of twelve photographs of blue sheets of paper thrown into the air and captured against the light. Arranged as a tableau, the images form an ephemeral, fragmented figure suspended between body and abstraction.
The title refers to Jung’s concept of the anima, broadly understood as the feminine aspect of the male psyche and as an unconscious inner figure or archetype mediating between the conscious and unconscious. “Blue Anima” is not a fixed psychological term, but an artistic construction that combines this idea of an elusive inner figure with the symbolic associations of blue, a melancholy, introspection, spirituality, distance and the immaterial. The fleeting paper becomes a kind of temporary psychic image: unstable, weightless and caught between physical presence and imagination.
Also it was still just a sheet of paper thrown up in the air. I was bored, so I created little blue souls on one afternoon. I am not sure, if I believe in anything like the existence of a soul.