Opening: Saturday, September 7, 2019, 4pm
Opening Hours: Tue-Fri 11am to 6pm, Sat 12-6pm and by appointment
Special Opening Hours on the occasion of the Düsseldorf Cologne Open Galleries

Galerie Thomas Zander is pleased to share new documentary landscape photographs by Mitch Epstein to present with drawings and sculptures by Claudia Parducci. The works are political and social reflections of our present historical moment. They formally and symbolically release levels and powers in order to address existing tensions and gaps, but also to point out possibilities of action and communication. Their juxtaposition continues the series of thematic double exhibitions to which the gallery is dedicated this year.

Mitch Epstein's photographs deal with relations between society and the landscape in the USA. Born in 1952 in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Epstein is considered a pioneer of color photography in contemporary art of the 1970s. Most recently, he turned to the series New York Arbor and Rocks and Clouds of black and white photography. In the exhibition is Epstein's current project Property Rightsto see that documents the struggle of various groups for their right to American land. For some, it is about their health and their way of life; for others for profit and power. The series also includes the complex history of landscape photography in the settlement of the American West. Looking at our present, the artist succeeds in becoming aware of the underlying historical levels when we ask who the country belongs to, with whose authority, with what right. Photographing these locations has become an act of resistance for the artist himself: in 2016, thousands of Native Americans and so-called water protectors gathered on the Standing Rock Sioux Reserve to prevent the construction of an oil pipeline through Holy Land, which threatened to contaminate important sources of fresh water. Epstein also photographed in the increasingly militarized border area between the US and Mexico, where resistance was provided in the form of humanitarian aid to refugees and migrants. Some of America's natural landmarks have been deprived of protection by the Trump government, and these areas are now cleared for mining and fossil fuel extraction. The impressive photographs in Property Rights testify to the perceptible anxiety that connects America's supposedly disparate landscapes. Epstein's works are featured in the collections of major international institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the Tate Modern in London, and the Musée d ' Style modern de la ville de paris.

The work of Los Angeles-based artist Claudia Parducci stems from her interest in the history of destruction and rebuilding. Her earlier works deal with the effects of human conflicts and natural disasters, the latest works are focused on the cycle of nature in which we are at all times in the cycle of arising and passing away. It examines survival strategies and the work associated with reconstruction and the necessary creativity for destruction. Drawing is a fundamental part of their practice. Starting from a single line, Parducci also develops her sculptures from line drawings. Like the title Friction HitchIn the repetition of lines and structures, the works investigate the interconnectedness and inextricability of forces and tensions. For example, in After Murrah , a rope sculpture suspended in space, whose structure holds itself in a limbo between rising and falling. The skeleton of a building is what is visible during construction and what remains behind when it is bombed. It also proves the fragility and structures and their resilience. The work is based on photographs of the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in 1995 in Oklahoma City, which also inspired a series of charcoal drawings Parduccis. The installation 23 columnsconsists of hand-knotted jute columns that extend from the ceiling to the floor. It discusses gender aspects of work as well as the importance of remnants of Western history. The natural fibers have material properties of both strength and ductility, so that a continuous fiber strand can form a whole structure. Another wall installation consists of several pieces of bronze cast in bronze, seeming to come out of the wall. Here, the rope becomes a rescue strategy, something to cling to, representing the connecting line that binds people to each other and to the ground. Parducci even uses her rope drawings as utopian architectural plans by floating the drawn rope in the air or linking it to endless loops. Their works challenge expectations and reveal the ability to simultaneously sustain two conflicting ideas, such as the idea that a structure rises and falls, that a material is rigid and supple, idea and object. Since Parducci's studies at the California Institute of the Arts, her work has been widely shown in the US and internationally. We are particularly pleased to present Claudia Parducci's works for the first time in the gallery. Since Parducci's studies at the California Institute of the Arts, her work has been widely shown in the US and internationally. We are particularly pleased to present Claudia Parducci's works for the first time in the gallery. Since Parducci's studies at the California Institute of the Arts, her work has been widely shown in the US and internationally. We are particularly pleased to present Claudia Parducci's works for the first time in the gallery.

A catalog for the exhibition will be published by the publisher of the bookstore Walther König.