Martin Schgaguler

The title of this work is a quote from Walter Benjamin and illustrates my interest in moments of close observation of things. In that moment, when things withstand our gaze, it becomes clear that they are more than what we think we know about them. A house may remain a house. A landscape may remain a landscape. And yet something begins to shift. We have terms for almost everything. We recognize things, categorize them, and name them. But sometimes, it is precisely when we look closely that we sense that things elude our understanding—that an image, a surface, a shadow, or a reflection contains more than we initially perceive. These works call for this kind of attention. They call for the willingness to linger with a photograph without immediately forming a conclusion. What remains is not an explanation, but a shift. Perhaps even the feeling of having seen things differently for a moment.

Biography

Martin Schgaguler, b. 1982 in Sterzing/Vipiteno (IT); lives and works in Basel (CH). Schgaguler studied art and design at the Free University of Bolzano and at ECAL in Lausanne. His works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions and are included in the art collection of the Province of South Tyrol as well as in private collections.