Detlef Günther
How do we recognize coherence and cohesion when all the limitations, all the categorizations,
all the codes and abbreviations only point to a fraction of who and what we are? DG
Detlef Günther is a trans-media artist and a researcher, one might add, because his artistic horizon is significantly influenced by the fields of history, anthropology and philosophy as well as Western and Eastern religion. His current topics, which deal with the theses and current effects of humanism and transhumanism, among other things, are presented by him in a multi-perspective manner through various media. In other words: Günther is less concerned with mere diversity; rather, his work presents the one in the many. Günther’s ability to hold this diversity in a space and frame of reference, to bring different perspectives, thought or value systems into an overall context, is striking. Since the early 1990s, Günther has been creating paintings, drawings, photographs, video works and installations, which he often combines in groups and cycles. He is always interested in exploring the possibilities of perception and the contextual nature of meaning. (Angelika Sommer)
In his works Günther investigates the manifestation of the (Western) image in its significance for the definition and establishment of images of the world and of man, its effect on the modes of the visible and invisible, its role and weight for the development of social behavior / social relations. In this context, Günther’s work also represents an advancement in the conceptualization of indeterminacy. This is not the pure indeterminacy of an arbitrary, negative freedom without transcendance and history. It is instead precisely the indeterminacy – and thus the non-depictability – that cannot be anticipated or made relative by any commonality, neither that of a society nor that of a community. In the transition from the general to the singular, from the common to the particular, from language to speech, from potentitality to actuality, indeterminacy is applied: the indeterminacy of the human individual.(Christian Kupke)
After studying humanities and communication sciences at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University in Munich and the Free University of Berlin (Master’s Degree: M. A.) Detlef Günther studied fine art at the UdK from 1984 to 1990 (Master’s Degree). At the same time he founded the group BOR with the artists Martin Assig, Klaus Hoefs, Oliver Öfelein and Jochen Stenschke. As a freelance artist, Günther worked in the 1990s on the research project “Technical Vision” at the Medieninstitut Berlin (headed by Prof. Dr. Arthur Engelbert). In 1997, he founded “Twosuns Media Development GmbH” and developed the interactive environment system “Enclued” in connection with a new type of camera procedure that records people’s movements in space in three dimensions. Both innovations have been patented by the German and European Patent Office. Detlef Günther has appeared with about 50 solo and group exhibitions in Germany and abroad, e. g. at the Haus der Kunst München, Gemeente Museum Helmond (NL), Galerie Kremer-Tengelmann (Cologne/Gelsenkirchen), NGBK Berlin. On behalf of companies and institutions such as Sony Deutschland, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Canon ArtLab in Tokyo and the artist Carsten Nicolai (project: Polar – Goldene Nica 2001 performed with the enclued IEP workbench) he has also realized various media projects and installations.
Detlef Günther’s works are represented in the Artmuseum Gelsenkirchen, Deutsche Bank Art Collection (Frankfurt), EON Art Collection, Ruth and Karl Kremer Collection (NRW) and Museo degli Angeli (Brolo-Sicily). He lives and works in Berlin.