BONN.- Bonn’s Burg Lede becomes a hub for photographic innovation with the exhibition Vier Spiegel und ein Stein (Four Mirrors and a Stone) by celebrated German photographer Timm Rautert. Running from November 23, 2024, to January 25, 2025, the exhibition features a deep dive into Rautert’s explorations of photography’s complexities, its role as a medium, and its interplay with themes of perception and identity.
A Journey Through Mirrors and Reflections
At the heart of this exhibition lies Rautert’s conceptual installation Vier Spiegel und ein Stein. Inspired by Malcolm Lowry’s novel Under the Volcano, the piece confronts the relationship between seeing and being seen. Visitors enter a room where a stone occupies the center, reflected endlessly in four mirrors on the walls. The mirrors, paradoxically, resist traditional photographic capture—when photographed, they render only a flat, gray surface, devoid of reflection, posing questions about the nature of reality and the constructed nature of photography.
This reflective tension mirrors Lowry’s text, where the protagonist ponders existential questions without access to a mirror, finding only stone instead. Through this installation, Rautert encapsulates the challenge of self-reflection and the limitations of photography as a medium to truly capture truth.
Thematic Highlights of Rautert’s Legacy
Timm Rautert’s career, spanning over five decades, is defined by his relentless questioning of photography’s role in society. From his early work in the 1960s as a photojournalist to his later explorations of the changing labor landscape, Rautert’s art has always revolved around the power dynamics inherent in images.
Mirrors as Metaphors: The mirror has been a recurring theme in Rautert’s oeuvre, symbolizing the interplay of reality, perception, and the photographic process. His self-portraits in mirrors capture not just his image but his position as both observer and participant in the artistic and political landscapes.
Photography’s Dual Nature: Rautert continuously examines the contradiction of photography: its ability to document and simultaneously construct reality. This exploration began with his seminal Image-Analytical Photography (1968–1974), where he dissected the medium’s communicative complexity beyond aesthetics.
A Dialogue Between Past and Present
The Bonn exhibition is part of a larger retrospective of Rautert’s work, complementing his Cologne show Dots Always Work. Neue Montagen. Together, the exhibitions delve into the artist’s personal and professional history, emphasizing photography’s evolution and its shifting meanings within cultural and social contexts.
The title of his retrospective at the Museum Folkwang, The Lives of Photography, underscores this dynamic. Rautert’s works engage with the idea that photography’s meanings are not fixed but fluid, shaped by social codes, cultural practices, and the ever-changing context in which they are viewed.
Rautert’s Contemporary Relevance
In Vier Spiegel und ein Stein, Rautert examines photography as both evidence and construction. This duality is evident in his recreation of Hans Holbein’s Lais of Corinth, where the depiction of beauty, wealth, and power becomes a critical lens through which to analyze the interconnectedness of art, society, and economics.
Similarly, the exhibition challenges the viewer to consider how photography, even in its most seemingly objective form, is a constructed reality. Rautert’s mirror series exemplifies this, offering a surface that reflects nothing definitive—just a blank slate for interpretation.
