Far away from supermodels and glamour, she or her friends take center stage as models, empresses or celebrities. Stephanie thus creates a glamorous - in the truest sense of the word enchanting - environment, which on closer inspection is made up of “worthless” materials and waste products: bubble wrap, yoghurt pots, vegetable nets, cardboard boxes etc.. The use of these materials reveals a double irony: The residual products, also defined as “recyclables” in German, return to the “economic cycle” in their own subtle way, in which they are elevated to the status of art. A principle with which the artist joins the long tradition of artists who have taken up the theme of the transformation of everyday and waste objects, such as Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Beuys, Tony Cragg and Daniel Spoerri, to name but a few.
With her photographic art, Stephanie Guse is a subversive mediator of reality: pathos meets trash, lies become truth and waste becomes a luxury product.
In our particular case, we have commissioned three photographic works based on Renaissance paintings that depict us as landlords and - alongside other works by Stephanie from the WANNAHAVE series - have found a place in our historic cottage in northern Italy. This brings us full circle to commissioned art, which has long been a common practice and the basis of contemporary art.
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Katrin and Dirk Liesenfeld are a passionate art collecting couple. Together they run the Artlodge - a stylish hideaway in the Austrian mountains where artlovers meet and enjoy exhibitons, the sculpture park and the personal exchange with artists in residence. https://www.artlodge.at/de