FRANZISKA STÜNKEL
TEXTS (SELECTION)
FOCUS
“Photo star of the moment: Franziska Stünkel. Her photographs are frighteningly en voguel: Franziska Stünkel shows life as it is behind glass – isolated and contactless, as many people currently feel. The German artist has been travelling the world for over ten years for her photo project “Coexist”, capturing reflections on shop window glass with her small Leica camera…..”
NTV
“She is a seeker, but doesn’t seem driven, more at peace with herself. Perhaps Franziska Stünkel has already arrived, although she always seems to be on the move. She has been on tour for seven months, living out of a suitcase. She is an artist and director….”
FAZ
“And now Franziska Stünkel, film director, photo artist and a modern romantic, as one may assume in view of her reflections, which is to be understood in both senses of the word. She calls her series of images of reflections, taken while travelling on four continents, “Coexist”, but is much less interested in the essence of a place than in the motif of superimposition, with which she unhinges the world and at the same time asks whether there is more to it than just the visible…”
MAX MAGAZIN
“The actions and thoughts of each individual have an impact on everyone and everything,” states photo artist and director Franziska Stünkel, 46. In the beautiful art book Coexist (published by Kehrer Verlag), she provides artistic proof of this. But her enormous creative power is not only evident there….
HAMURGER ABENDBLATT
“And yet her pictures are much more than just street life photography…”
MONOPOL KUNSTMAGAZIN
The photographic works from Shanghai are reminiscent of films by Wong Kar-Wai. Stünkel’s narrative talent is an art of omission and allusion. Her camera looks at people who turn their backs on the viewer. What are these people waiting for? What do they long for? Are they dreaming?
LEICA CAMERA BLOG
The visual worlds of Leica photographer Franziska Stünkel are not only multi-layered and complex, but also highly impressive and demand a precise exploration of the unique moods of the respective places. Her reflections of the world’s metropolises tell of the global coexistence of human life in their unique condensation. We spoke to the artist about her work….
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FRANZISKA STÜNKEL – COEXIST
Since ten years, the internationally acclaimed film director and photo artist Franziska Stünkel has been travelling with her Leica Camera through Asia, Africa, Europe, and America in search of natural reflections in shop windows, which, in their concentration, tell of the coexistence of human life. Charged with the utmost complexity, her photographs are the visualization of the similarities and contrasts that exist in our multifaceted, networked world. The artist completely dispenses with the digital post-processing of her photographs. The result is a multi-layered view of the highly topical question of coexistence in our present time.
Franziska Stünkel is a German artistic photographer and movie director. Following her studies in the film class and artistic photography class at the Kunsthochschule Kassel and the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst Hannover, she became a masterclass student under Prof. Uwe Schrader. Franziska Stünkel’s photographic works are exhibited in renowned galleries and exhibition venues and are represented in private and public collections. The Audi Art Award and the Berlin Hyp Kunstpreis have been among the distinctions for her works of photography. Her films have been shown in 19 countries and at more than 100 international film festivals and have received multiple prizes, including the Best New Director Award of Williamsburg Brooklyn Film Festival in New York and the Otto Sprenger Regiepreis. Both as director and screenwriter, Franziska Stünkel is currently realising the movie “Nahschuss”, starring Lars Eidinger, Devid Striesow and Luise Heyer. The movie is inspired by the life of Dr. Werner Teske, who was the last person to be executed in the former GDR, German Democratic Republic. The movie will be released in cinemas in 2020.
Franziska Stünkel examines sociopolitical issues in her movies. The photographic series Coexist depicts her globe-encompassing search for peaceful coexistence.
The book "Coexist" has been published by Kehrer Verlag to accompany the exhibition. It shows 110 motifs. The photographs are supplemented by texts by various authors and scientists who, from their point of view, shed light on the concept of coexistence.
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COEXIST
Jarmuschek + Partner | 29 February - 14 March 2020
With her atmospheric snapshots, Franziska Stünkel captures the fascinating diversity of daily urban situations. In her reflective works, we find ourselves and our surroundings in the midst of multi-layered and complex overlays. Intoxication and tranquility, joy and melancholy, glaring bright lights and gloom - like single people, everything in these places exists next to - and with each other.
For 10 years, Franziska Stünkel has been searching with her Leica and has traveled not only through Europe, Asia and Africa, but also through America in 2019. In a breathtaking and astonishing way, her photographs culminate in worlds that are usually close to each other, but never seem to touch each other. In them, advertisements and obtrusive letterings can be found alongside anonymous faces and forgotten sceneries from long ago. The viewer walks through these photographs as a flâneur and curious observer, and in the attempt to orientate himself and identify details he is increasingly encouraged to empathize deeply with the moment presented here. Its comprehensive perception requires time: several facets of a complex reality come together to form a poetic image of hidden objects, in which consumption, decay and beauty often form a frame for the interconnected stories and human identities.
Each image draws a new flow of discoveries, associations and emotions from the viewer. Full of fascination we pause to grasp this small section sensually, absolutely aware that spatially and temporally there is a before and an after, that is withheld from us; and that everything and everyone is connected in some way at any given moment.
Franziska Stünkel shows us the complex utopia of an all-encompassing, harmonious coexistence and offers every beholder to become part of it. At this point, it gets difficult to be uninvolved and to set boundaries.
BOOK PUBLICATION
Looking back on the photographs that were taken so far, Franziska Stünkel has asked renowned authors and scientists from various fields, including artificial intelligence, biology, psychology, happiness research, linguistics, culture and anxiety research, to write about the topic of coexistence from their perspective. The result is an exceptional and impressive photobook (Kehrer Verlag).