China, the flip side

“The artist Beatriz von Eidlitz spent time in Beijing and Shanghai in 2007 and 2008. Immediately during her first stroll, she noticed the many brooms – they stood in front of almost every house. A first photo was taken. This was followed by dozens more and the discovery of “sweeping still lifes” became a small obsession. Sometimes the brooms hung from trees, sometimes they leaned against bicycles; always, together with their surroundings, an image emerged that Beatriz von Eidlitz captured in its raw reality.” – Eva Mueller, art consultant

Cementerios

This series of photographs of rural cemeteries taken in 2005 in the Argentine provinces of Salta and Jujuy, where the living keep their distance from the dead, at least as far as the location of their final resting places is concerned. One typically stumbles upon these cemeteries quite abruptly and at a “safe” distance from the settlements, somewhere in the landscape. Nevertheless, it can be felt and intimated that these venues are not randomly chosen. In any case, whether they filled with many graves or just single gravesites, they are always impressive.

Porteros

Part of the street scene in Buenos Aires is the view into the entrance halls of apartment buildings, where porteros man their posts at polished desks. They are the Bonarensian doormen, guardians of the portals. They keep an eye on the street, are at the service of the house’s residents, read, watch soccer matches on TV or exchange news with their colleagues from elsewhere on the street. Especially at night, their solitary presence adds to the atmosphere of the streets. This photo series from 2012 is dedicated to that theme.

Half-life

The disused brickworks in Oberkaufungen is an impressive place: an industrial monument, a remarkable building, a bizarre monster, almost demonic in the depths of its interior. Twenty years ago, it was a place in a state of decay and transformation. And it was also a trove where materials and spatial situations could be discovered. Here, near Kassel, Beatriz von Eidlitz and Andreas Stetka set up their installation “Halbwertszeit,” simultaneously with Documenta 11 in 2002.

“Half-life” refers to the period of time in which a substance decreases by half. In a figurative sense, this can mean: old used objects already have half of their lifespan behind them. After that, something new can begin. New aspects, properties, qualities can be discovered in things.

Beatriz von Eidlitz and Andreas Stetka used what they found on the premises of the abandoned brickworks as materials with which to design their installations. In this way, they transfer objects and spaces transferred from the realm of utility and expediency into the sphere of play, alienation, recombination and transformation. On September 1, 2002, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported on this installation with a full-page article under the headline “Das Nebengerümpel der Documenta.”

And paradise

Two video installations were staged in the Theater am Gärtnerplatz on the occasion of the Kulturtage Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt in the context of the 850th anniversary of the founding of the city of Munich. “Beatriz von Eidlitz and Karina Smigla-Bobinski chose the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz as the location for two video installations, which they have entitled “und das paradies.” The city gave the motto “building bridges” and both artists, who have multinational roots, felt personally addressed. They were thinking of bridges between local people and immigrants, between reality and imagination, between earthly sobriety and lofty expectations.” – Hanne Weskott

Art in the Four Seasons Resort, Provence at Terre Blanche

The Four Seasons Resort, Terre Blanche in Provence was completed in 2004 and subsequently furnished with an extensive assortment of art objects from the studios of regional and international artists under the direction of art consultant Eva Mueller. Beatriz von Eidlitz contributed numerous artworks in various formats, which found their places primarily in the suites and villas for the hotel’s guests.

Bayerische Vereinsbank Munich

At the request of architect Helga Sessig, who is commissioned by Bayerische Vereinsbank, Beatriz von Eidlitz developed a concept for furnishing the bank’s offices with her artworks in 1995.

Landesbausparkasse Munich

In 1995, LBS in Munich furnished some of its business premises with numerous works by Beatriz von Eidlitz. The art consultant Eva Müller was responsible for the arrangement and conception.

City and District Savings Bank of Erlangen Höchstadt

In 1998, the municipal savings bank in Höchstadt a. d. Aisch was tasked with furnishing its boardroom with art. Due to the specific conditions in the space, a solution with pictures hung on the walls seemed unsatisfactory. Instead, Beatriz von Eidlitz and the lead art consultant Eva Müller jointly decided to design sculptural elements specifically for the room. The wall sculptures provided a strong aesthetic counterpoint to the dominant functional design features of the boardroom, thus creating an overall effect that was as appealing as it was exciting.

Not very many kilometers separate Munich to the Wurzmühle near Bad Grosspertholz, but they lead into another world. The paper mill, which was founded around 1789, stands beside a stream in an elongated valley in the Waldviertel, close to the Czech border. When Beatriz von Eidlitz first arrived there in 1985, she came from Kapelln an der Perschling, not far from Vienna, where she had staged a solo exhibition at the Katzenberger Quatember. Msgr. Dr. Robert Gärtner, the founder of this cultural event, had told her about the paper mill. As she was preparing her diploma thesis at the Munich Art Academy, where the paper workshop was usually overcrowded, this tip came at precisely the right time for the artist. Franz and Josefine Mörzinger, the owners of the historic mill at the time, gave her a warm welcome. She looked around, received valuable advice and was able to set up a workspace among the historic equipment. She returned the favor by reviving the handmade paper industry, commissioning handcrafted sieve frames from the village carpenter’s shop, and doing her part to procure discarded white cotton fabrics, the raw material for rag paper, which had become scarce. Beatriz von Eidlitz clearly remembers her first experiments with rag pulp, screens and handmade paper:

“My journey with oxidations began with trying to dry the pulp into paper directly atop an iron plate. I left the whole thing to dry when I went back to Munich. Upon my return a few weeks later, the paper pulp on the iron plate still hadn’t dried and was, in fact, still soaking wet. I stoked a fire in the old kitchen stove and laid the sheet on it, iron plate an all. That helped. After a few hours, I was finally able to peel off the layer of paper, which was now dry and strong. What came to light was breathtaking! The paper glowed with rusty hues. This was the beginning of a new phase of work, from which my techniques developed in ever-new experimental steps. My oeuvre was dominated at that time by paper sculptures – some freestanding, some meant to be hung – strongly relief-accentuated works and elaborately crafted spherical segments. For some sculptures, I invited the blacksmith to contribute his skills. That’s how rag paper, iron and the rusty tones of the oxidations became central elements in my work – and have remained so to this day.”