SERIES & PRACTICE

“The Preserved Days,” Pictures and Daily Books by Stefani Schneider

Excerpt from the opening speech by Prof. Dr. Frank Günter Zehnder
Bi-Pi’s Kulturgalerie, Cologne – May 1995

The secret theme of all the works seems to be herself.

Not in an egomaniacal, egocentric sense, but rather she, Stefani Schneider on one side, and on the other, all aspects of an alert contemporary consciousness that registers and senses what is happening around oneself. Ultimately, it is about the relationship between the two – between environment and artist – and about making that the pictorial theme. There is an inner desire, a very strict and consistent transcription of our time, which has really asserted itself over the past three years. And this continues, so to speak, until the day before yesterday, until May 1st. A picture from May 1st, marked by a mighty elephant – an African elephant, which, unlike Indian elephants, cannot be forced to work – is of course very profound. To place it in the picture as a memorial – again against the background that the elephant is a lucky animal in many cultures of the world, predicting strength, assertiveness, and future – is very inventive. The transcription goes that far. At the end of 1992, you began to stenograph and record your time. I think this is a very relaxed yet reflective engagement with time, fundamentally also with our time.

She calls many of her works Tagesbücher [daily books]. This means: books that consist of days, not books that are written on days. Those are called Tagebücher [diaries]. Tagesbücher are the compilation of days.

In 1992, she began this series “The Preserved Days” and then expanded it into hour-pictures and minute-pictures, thus even more strongly compressed and analyzed. She has created books, pictures, and accordion-fold works.

The picture notes – some pictures are indeed called “Notes” – represent a touching point between Tagesbuch (the artistic product) and Tagebuch (diary). When one immerses oneself in some pictures, one recognizes transcriptions, notes, ideas, reflections on the day or on events that have been captured. Here these two elements of perception and representation are coupled.

These are admittedly very personal statements, both in the written and in the pictorial parts, and they have a very strongly contemplative background. When one looks at them, when one stands before the pictures, one often has the slight feeling of violating the intimate sphere because one is intruding and participating in what Stefani Schneider experienced very personally in just a few minutes, perhaps far from here.

Exhibitions are usually an offering of pictures, sculptures, graphics, or whatever. They are an offer to engage with the concept of art; they also allow participation in personal life. What Stefani Schneider presents is very daring work that takes high risks with artistic and personal vulnerability and has perhaps learned to live with this very sovereignly.

Prof. Dr. Frank Günter Zehnder
(Director, Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn)

EXCERPT – Two Women from Fürth
BY ELMAR TANNERT

FÜRTH — In the literary series “Fürther Freiheit,”  Fürther Nachrichten
For the whole text click here

…
Slept poorly last night, I wrote the next day in my diary.

As we know, both unpublished and published diaries consist predominantly of petty banalities, self-absorbed or self-loathing observations, settling of scores with enemies, remarks about the weather, and occasionally interspersed erotic fantasies. One should neither write nor read diaries.

But from the Fürth painter Stefani Schneider there exist Tagesbücher—Books of the Days—which is almost the same as diaries, but something entirely different. From the outside, each Book of the Days is a slender volume. When you open it, an image unfolds like an accordion. Over many years, alongside her work on other pieces, Stefani Schneider has captured the particularity of each day in an image, a drawing, a collage (in old spelling: Kollahsche). So this is another way to keep a diary! thinks the viewer, and is joyfully surprised. Opening one after another, laying them beside each other and on top of each other and all mixed up on the table, looking and leafing through them, one discovers all of life anew and discovers, moreover, a person of great sensitivity and playful, versatile expressive ability. Often when reading ordinary diaries, one gets the feeling: this life was a tea bag. And it was steeped anew every day.

But Stefani Schneider takes a different kind of tea each day. 
….

For the complete text by Elmar Tannert, click here