Thomas Demand

The works of Thomas Demand stand out for their rich, dense colors, the monumental elegance of their dimensions, and the jagged purity and balance of their construction. Initially, a sculptor who worked with paper, Thomas Demand took up photography in order to record his ephemeral creations. Eventually, the camera became central to his creative process. In front of the camera lens, he meticulously constructs paper models of empty places. They are representations of 20th century architectural structures that seem to be gutted and left with only their exterior shell. 

These images refer to another reality, that of the photos which inspired the artist: historical archives, political, media, and police documents whose origin he prefers to keep secret. The emptiness of these places questions the way we look at the strong images which constitute our collective memory and invites us to reflect on the deceitfulness of the photographic medium and the media’s use of it.