1998/1999 Pressetext zur Ausstellung germination, -

european bienale for young artists, Athen, Antwerpen

Martin Fritzsche has been a student at the Munich Academy since 1993; his earlier interests included graphical arts and furniture making; he also studied pedagogy, psychology and politics. He has been actively engaged in social pedagogy since

1987, working as a child therapist. His world view and general outlook on life have greatly been influenced by his work with mentally retarded people, as well as with destitute families. Although at the Academy he initially created objects and environments relying on an intellectual approach, he soon discovered that this was not the right track for him. The ideas and the art ofJoseph Beuys exerted a great influence on the artist, helping him develop an understanding of the elementary

evidences concealed in things, in objects and in art. The fundamental principle of his art is based on his insistence to view things in their natural simplicity, without any mannerism or complications. Not necessarily regarding himself as an artist, nor the works he creates as artworks, he is more interested in observation and exploration, in the creation of various situations, and in the acquisition of new experiences from the

experiments and toying with ideas that accompany the process. His creative method primarily consists of thinking things and processes over and selecting from several, equally viable situations at his own will.

The programme Make Me Feel Home forms an important element of Martin Fritzsche`s art. The essential idea is to fill arbitrarily chosen rooms and spaces with objects and forms, and to arrange things in the available space spontaneously.

He uses various materials—ceramic, polyester, textile, paper, etc.—to create small objects, and then arranges them so as to make the chosen rooms and spaces more homy and friendly.

The objects, forms and colours he uses are invariably simple and without frills, and in fact they are often ready-mades (pieces of sponge, thread, paper, textile, etc.). He furnishes the rooms and halls, and often public spaces, in various formations, in an

improvisational manner. The spaces and installations resulting in this way are transferred to another system of relations, filling the strange rooms and places with familiar human contents of great warmth. He draws pleasure from watching people's

reactions when they discover or use his installations, and awaits the signs of surprise, smile and joy. His works form a situation art imbued with deep humanity and warmth, in which meditative melancholy is just as typical as the complex presence of

playing and educating.

With his playful spatial situations and furnishings, Martin Fritzsche achieves the re-interpretation of alienated places by "taming" them and investing them with human qualities in his immediate micro-environment, thus creating, over and over again, the ideas of harmony and delight chat are present in the world. He represents a classic morality: his talking flowers (Blumenberg, 1993), footprints made of ceramic, as in the

reconstruction of a night spent in a bunker (Ein Nacht im Bunker), red swings {Schaukein, 1995, hall installation) and spatial installations made of coloured ceramic deliberately create an aura and a situation which directly relate to people, and which,

without diminishing the importance of the distinct civilizatory situation and the circumstances of everyday life, mainly speak about general and universal aspects. The relationship between the space and the objects created, found or brought into focus

by him, along with the effect that this encounter has on the surroundings and on people, form the original concept of Martin Fritzsche`s art, with the help of which he has been able to develop a wholly distinctive and ironically playful style imbued with benign and understanding wisdom.

ORSOLYA MERHAN, August 1997