DOCUMENTATION CENTER THURINGIA

The Documentation Center Thuringia (DZT) is dedicated to researching radical political movements in Thuringia that glorify oppression and violence. Founded by artist Erik Niedling and writer Ingo Niermann, the DZT examines both what was and what is, as well as what could be. Unlike documentation centers dedicated to Nazi history, the DZT does not confine itself to surveying particularly catastrophic past events, but understands the pursuit of oppression and violence, as manifested in National Socialism and its underlying racism, sexism, ableism, and totalitarianism, as something always undergoing transformation. In order to resist it successfully, the DZT strives to apprehend not only its existing forms but also its potential future mutations.
 
In the DZT’s  exhibitions – Dokumentationszentrum Thüringen (2022) and Summer of Anarchy (2022) – Erik Niedling explores the question of how Thuringia became a rallying point for right-wing radicals and neo-Nazis after the fall of the Wall, and chronicles how, in order to violently oppose them and the annexation of the socialist Eastern Germany by the capitalist Western Germany, he and his friends founded the „Anarchist Faction“ as  teenagers. Niedling gathers archival material and historical artifacts and presents his personal story as a fragment in world events. A present-day encounter between Niedling and an old comrade-in-arms, who today belongs to the QAnon movement, gives a glimpse into an ominous future.
 
The Thuringia Documentation Center sees itself as a complement to the Burial of the White Man, which Niedling and Niermann anticipate annually on May 8, the day of Germany’s defeat in World War II, on Thuringia’s Kleiner Gleichberg. Here, the largest pyramid in the world is one day to be cut out of the mountain and subsequently disappear under it again, symbolically burying the archetype of the White Man, which bears a particular responsibility for oppression and violence.
 
Download exhibition brochure
 
 
Eigner (with Ingo Niermann), 2024. 
Video, 7:31 min
Walder (with Ingo Niermann), 2023. 
Video, 7:26 min
In the Heart of Germany, 2022. 
Video, 22:57 min 
Helmut Kohl in Erfurt, 2022. 
Video, 11:48 min
Information Board, 2021.
Wood, paint, wax, soot, steel, thumbtack, 117 x 65 x 6 cm
ACAB, 2022
Plastic, steel, wood, cord, spray paint, dirt
111 x 82 x 36 cm
Summer of Anarchy, 2022
Wood, camouflage net, concrete, aluminum foil, steel
Dimensions variable
Summer of Anarchy, 2022 (Detail)
Wood, camouflage net, concrete, aluminum foil, steel
Dimensions variable
Target, 2021.
Steel, Gun oil, 53 x 19.5 x 7 cm
Thuringian Photograph (Equestrian statue), 2022.
Archival inkjet print, 58 x 46 cm (framed)
Thuringian Photograph (Waterfall), 2022.
Archival inkjet print, 58 x 46 cm (framed)
Thuringian Photograph (Car), 2022.
Archival inkjet print, 46 x 58 cm (framed)
Thuringian Photograph (Statue), 2022.
Archival inkjet print, 46 x 58 cm (framed)
Display case I, 2022. 80    x 140 x 15 cm
– Logo design for the Anarchistische Fraktion (Anarchist Faction, AF), 1990
– Manifest of the AF, 1990
– Founding charter of the AF, 1990
– Admission regulations of the AF, 1990
–  Claim of responsibility of the AF for an attack on the Kyffhäuser Monument, 1990
– Poster design for the AF, 1990
– Press photographs of the AF’s actions: slogan graffiti on house wall (photo: Axel Usko, 1991), plates of party offices corroded with iron (III) chloride (photo: Andrea Schicker, 1990), facade hit with paint bombs (photo: Andrea Schicker, 1990)
– Article “Neofaschismus in der DDR” (Neofascism in the GDR) in Neue Erfurter Zeitung, issue 4, Erfurt, 1990
– Photo of the members of the AF in Berlin, 1990
– Audio cassette with Erik Niedling’s interviews with young neo-Nazis, 1990
Display case II, 2022. 80 x 140 x 15 cm
– DIY throwing star, 1990
– DIY nunchaku, 1990
– Folded flag of the GDR, 1989
– Sleeve of a bomber jacket, 1990
– DIY slingshot, 1990
– Schwarze Texte: Politische Zensur in der BRD ‒ 1968 bis heute (Black Texts: Political Censorship in the Federal Republic of Germany ‒ 1968 til today), ID-Archiv im Internationalen Institut für Sozialgeschichte, Amsterdam, 1989
– Insert in the second edition of Schwarze Texte: Politische Zensur in der BRD ‒ 1968 bis heute, 1989
– Sticker with anarchist slogans, 1990
– Sticker with the anarchist star, 1990
– GDR passport of Erik Niedling, 1990
– Wegerein-K in petri dish, 1990

Flag Painting (Thuringia III), 2022.
Oil on canvas, 90 x 75 cm
Flag Painting (Deutsch Süd-Ost), 2022.
Oil on canvas, 90 x 75 cm
Claim of responsibility, 1990
Typewriter on paper, 29,7 x 21 cm

BURIAL OF THE WHITE MAN

In Lychen, sitting in the middle of the overgrown garden, I sipped sparkling apple juice while pondering the idea of creating Pyramid Mountain with a gigantic explosion. Two butterflies landed on my knee. I tried to sit still so as not to disturb them. After a while they beat their wings and flew to a red tulip.(Excerpt from Burial of the White Man, Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2019)



Untitled (Pentaerythrityltetranitrat), 2019
Pentaerythrityltetranitrat in petri dish
Dimensions variable    
Untitled (Fragment of the lost installation: New Balance, 2016/17), 2019
Rope, Nail
Dimensions variable    
White Cat, 2020
Archival inkjet print
66 × 99 cm 
Ramp, 2021
136 Books
38,5 × 203,2 × 19,5 cm
Rider, 2021  
Lacquer and shellac on polyurethane
Three plates on blue wall, each 38,5 × 79 × 6 cm 
Driver, 2021
Lacquer and shellac on polyurethane
Three plates on blue wall, each 37 x 75,5 x 5,5 cm
Untitled II (Burial of the White Man) 2020
Oil on canvas
60 × 50 cm
White Donkey, 2021
Archival inkjet print
75,8 × 50,5 cm 
Monument, 2021
Archival inkjet print
75,8 × 50,5 cm
2048, 2020 
Basalt, rope
10,5 × 9,5 × 19 cm
Seizure V, 2021
Basalt
230 x 270 cm 
White Man, 1994/2021
Archival inkjet print
75,8 × 50,5 cm 

PYRAMID MOUNTAIN: A VIDEO DIARY

A public diary not only captures experiences, it often encourages you to make your life more successful. Just as millions of people today document their lives more or less realistically in social networks to create an optimized version of themselves, Niedling shows his attempts to advance Pyramid Mountain’s realization in a regular video diary as a way of spurring himself on and exploring the framework conditions through conversations and actions with sympathizers, critics, and experts.



What Happened So Far, 2018
Video
59:12 min
Leveled to the Ground, 2018
Video
5:26 min
Seizure II, 2018
Video
2:54 min
Collateral Damage, 2018
Video
10:20 min
A Camp, 2018
Video
22:37 min
Power Nap. 2019
Video
8:54 min
Erik Niedling and Maik Bluhm
Burial of the White Man, 2020
Video
10:55 min
Burial of the White Man, 2021
Video
1:01 min

FUTURES

Molybdomancy is still practiced today in German-speaking countries and commonly known as Bleigießen (lead-pouring) respectively Zinngießen (tin-leading). It is a popular pastime, especially during New Year’s Eve celebrations to predict one’s upcoming year. Small lead or tin figurines are melted over a candle and, once liquified, poured into cold water. The transformed and resolidified shape is then interpreted for clues to an uncertain future.For his sculpture series, Niedling replicates the process of Molybdomancy, but enlarges its scale over a hundredfold. Instead of a single figurine, Niedling liquifies whole armies of tin soldiers, pours them into water and receives a quite dramatic object.



Future 12/27/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
24.5 x 17.5 x 18 cm
Future 01/20/17, 2017
Tin, Lead
22.5 x 23 x 8.5 cm
Future 12/30/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
36.5 x 41 x 8.5 cm
Future 11/17/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
26 x 18 x 14.5 cm
Future 02/29/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
8 x 40.5 x 41 cm
Future 01/13/17, 2017 
Tin, Lead
22 x 22 x 14.5 cm
Future 01/19/17, 2017 
Tin, Lead
8 x 53 x 18.5 cm 
Future 07/10/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
24.5 x 21.5 x 8.5 cm
Future 06/17/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
25 x 32.5 x 26 cm
Future 11/18/15, 2015
Tin, Lead
22 x 23 x 11 cm
Future 01/21/17, 2017 
Tin, Lead
16 x 29.5 x 11 cm
Future 08/13/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
4 x 20.5 x 19.5 cm
Future 08/19/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
5.5 x 23 x 20.5 cm
Future 08/21/16, 2016
Tin, Lead
28 x 37 x 7.5 cm

PYRAMID DOLLAR

The launch of the Pyramid Dollar (P$) marks the first time that shares in a single artwork, Pyramid Mountain, are being issued. This work, which was conceived by Ingo Niermann in 2010 and subsequently transferred to Erik Niedling, is a concept for the largest burial site and pyramid of all time: a pyramid, chiseled from a mountain and at least 200 meters high, within which Niedling will be interred, after which the pyramid is itself buried under the excavated material and the mountain restored to its original shape. The issue price of the Pyramid Dollar doubles each successive year. In the first year (2015 AD) it is 1 P$ for 1 g gold, in the second (2016 AD) 1 P$ for 2 g gold, in the third (2017 AD) 1 P$ for 4 g gold, etc.



Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann
One Pyramid Dollar (P$), 2015
Digital print
14,5 x 25,9 cm 
Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann
One Thousand Pyramid Dollars (P$), 2015
Digital print
14,5 x 25,9 cm 
Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann
One Million Pyramid Dollars (P$), 2015
Digital print
14,5 x 25,9 cm 

PYRAMID MOUNTAIN PHOTOGRAPHS

The series Pyramid Mountains Photographs, is the result of a worldwide search for a suitable mountain to realize Pyramid Mountain.



Pyramid Mountain Photograph I, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
35 x 27,5 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph II, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
35 x 27,5 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph III, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
35 x 27,5 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph IV, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
35 x 27,5 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph V, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
35 x 27,5 cm
 Pyramid Mountain Photograph VI, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
35 x 27,5 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph VII, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
27,5 x 35 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph VIII, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
27,5 x 35 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph IX, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
27,5 x 35 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph X, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
27,5 x 35 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph XI, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
27,5 x 35 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph XII, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
27,5 x 35 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph XIII, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
27,5 x 35 cm
Pyramid Mountain Photograph XIV, 2014
Inkjet print on fibre-based paper
27,5 x 35 cm

PYRAMID PAINTINGS

In his series of the Pyramid Paintings, Niedling uses the soot of discarded and destroyed paintings as colorants for abstract gestural notations. Only when he has perfected his work on the Pyramid Paintings to the point that they unvaryingly satisfy him over a long sequence will the series find completion. After Niedling captured the soot of his scrapped works on glass plates in his Teilchen (2012) series, he now rubs it onto canvases in his Pyramid Paintings, creating a link to an imaging technology that harks all the way back to cave paintings. Niedling’s painting is a pause in the face of the oversized challenge of making the Pyramid Mountain a reality. The alternation of creation and destruction recalls the cycles of life, and the completion of the series resembles death in perfection.



Untitled #01 (Pyramid Paintings), 2014
Soot on canvas
164 x 124 cm
Untitled #02 (Pyramid Paintings), 2014
Soot on canvas
240 × 195 cm
Untitled #04 (Pyramid Paintings), 2014
Soot on canvas
240 × 195 cm
Untitled #6 (Pyramid Paintings), 2014
Soot on canvas
195 x 140 cm
 Untitled #8 (Pyramid Paintings), 2014
Soot on canvas
195 x 140 cm
Untitled #10 (Pyramid Paintings), 2014
Soot on canvas
230 x 170 cm
Untitled #12 (Pyramid Paintings), 2014
Soot on canvas
195 x 140 cm

THE CHAMBER

List of works to be transferred to my burial chamber after my death. This is to be realized within Pyramid Mountain, conceived by Ingo Niermann—a pyramid at least 200 meters high carved from a natural mountain that will be reburied under the excavated material after my internment, restoring it to its original mountain shape. Pyramid Mountain not just buries a single human being and their treasures, it rather buries an entire epoch — of the white men – shaped by the cruel pursuit of symbolic immortality.



 

Room 1: Childhood

 

High display case

Top:

– Four vases from my family’s supply.

– Creamer that belonged to my grandparents.

Bottom:

– Two GDR toy army tanks.

– Seven GDR toy soldiers.

– Two Matchbox cars from the Intershop in Oberhof.

– GDR bottle openers showing marks I made in 1983.

– Wooden cat that stood in my childhood bedroom for as long as I can remember.

– Photograph (b/w), 1979: my parents with me at the parish fair in Bindersleben.

– Wooden pistol, 1979: carved by my father, with my fingerprint where I picked it up before the paint dried.

– White die that has always accompanied me.

– Shell, acquired through a trade in elementary school.

 

 

Room 2: Adolescence

 
  1. Table display case

– Three certificates: DTSB school judo tournament, first place, 1984; school judo tournament, first place, 1985; Steelworkers’ Trophy, first place, 1986.

– GDR scorebook for judo.

– Photograph (b/w), 1986: judo training camp in Ł d z, Poland.

– Three judo medals: Spartakiad Children’s and Youth Games, bronze, 1987; Erfurt District Championship, silver, 1988; gold, 1988.

– Photograph (b/w), 1981: winning my first judo medal (bronze) in the Erfurt District Championship.

 

  1. Table display case

– “Honor Dagger” from the German Wehrmacht.

– Bayonet, German Wehrmacht.

– Bayonet, German Wehrmacht.

– Casting mold for tin soldiers.

– Crocodile leather case, lined with ostrich leather.

– Stopwatch.

– Slice of ivory.

– Watchmaker’s hammer with ebony handle.

– Decorative spoon.

– Watchmaker’s shaping pliers.

– Paintbrush crafted from a bullet casing.

– Butcher knife that belonged to my grandfather.

– Piece of pottery from the Temple of Karnak (Egypt).

– Two Indian arrowheads made of flint.

– Flint arrowhead from the Stone Age.

– Amber pendant that belonged to my grandmother, which I wore for years after her death in 1988.

– Heart-shaped aluminum locket that belonged to my grandmother, contains a photograph (b/w) of my grandfather.

– Travel thermometer made of ivory.

 

  1. Table display case

– School essay “Pauseneindrücke,” ca. 1986: describes a hike in the Krkonoše Mountains.

– Two photographs (b/w), 1989: Wehrausbildungslager (weaponstraining camp) in Beichlingen.

– Summons to the Wehrausbildungslager, 1989.

– GDR children’s I.D. card.

– GDR I.D. card.

– GDR passport.

– School notebook started by my parents, contains evaluations of my school conduct, 1985.

 

  1. Table display case

– Reproduction (b/w) of a Depeche Mode poster.

– Bravo articles about Depeche Mode.

– Photograph (b/w), 1988: group portrait with Markus Bruszis, Andreas Horvath, and me, taken in a photography studio.

– Reichsbahn card forged by my girlfriend at the time, where I gave my name as Vincent Strauß.

– Gutting knife in a leather sheath.

– Photograph (color), 1989: Christmas in my parents’ modern living room.

– Certificate for my participation in a children’s painting contest held in India, undated (ca. 1987).

– Contract with my father regarding conditions of use of his leather jacket, with an additional clause concerning the length of my hair, 1989.

 

  1. Table display case

– Poster design for the Anarchist’s Faction (AF), founded by me in 1990.

– AF foundation charter, 1990.

– Poster for a demonstration against Chancellor Helmut Kohl, 1990.

– AF logo design, 1990.

– Burgonet in packaging.

– Mouth guard shaped to fit my mouth.

– Sticker for an antifascist strike.

– Broken-off Mercedes star.

 

  1. Table display case

– Letter from the Yeti mountain bike manufacturers, 1994.

– Yeti team jersey.

– Yeti catalog, 1991.

– Photograph (color, with red filter): me and Christian Zahn after a ride in the countryside.

– Swatch watch with a skewed face.

– Photograph (b/w), 1994: me and my skater friends.

– Key chain.

– Yeti shot glass.

– Two Yeti and Syncros buttons.

 

 

Room 3: Mark

 

Table display case

– Two slide reproductions (color), 1993: my upper arm following a laser tattoo removal.

 
 
 

Room 4: Travel Years

 
  1. Table display case

– X-ray photograph, 1992: the broken bone that left me bedridden for several weeks, when I began taking photographs.

– Large-format negative, Type 55, 1994: Marc Holtmann, my photography mentor.

– Sketchbook, 1997–99, with a photograph of my slashed and blooddrenched undershirt from a knife attack in 1997.

– Article in the Thüringer Allgemeine on the founding of my project

space foto.raum in Erfurt and my search for like-minded people in the area, 1999.

– foto.raum stamp, 1999.

– Key chain in the form of a violet billiard ball.

– Polaroid, 1996: my friends Daniel Homes and Markus Bruszis.

– Old broken Pepsi bottle.

– Asphalt from the old Route 66.

– Barbour wax.

– Flier for Puck, a techno club in Erfurt.

– Admission ticket for a Bodycount concert at the Weimarhalle, 1993.

 

  1. Table display case

– Erfurt city magazine t.akt 11 (1995) with a cover photograph (b/w) taken by me.

– Erfurt city magazine Boulevard 8 (1998) with an ad I designed for the Erfurt skate shop Orange Jungle: four photographs (b/w) and an excerpt from the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

– Promotional postcard for E & N Photography, Erfurt.

– Promotional postcard for Optiker Bettzüge, Erfurt.

– Two promotional postcards for the Orange Jungle skate shop, Erfurt.

– Invitation card for my exhibition “Mein Kampf. Dein Kampf” (My Struggle. Your Struggle) at foto.raum, a Leipzig project space opened for this project, 1999.

 

  1. Table display case

– Polaroid camera.

– Passport, Federal Republic of Germany.

– Erik Niedling, Monochrome, portfolio (Bleicherode, 1999).

– “Kawumm” cannabis pipe, 1993: built by me in southern France.

– Zippo lighter that I shot several times with an air pistol.

– Passport photo, 1999: me with my mouth and shirt smeared with fake blood.

– Photograph of an installation in the “Mein Kampf. Dein Kampf” exhibition, foto.raum, Leipzig, 1999.

– Rock that Susann Lochthofen (n e Luthardt) used as an ashtray.

 
 
 

Room 5: Day

 

High display case

Top:

– Teapot my friends and I used to pass around LSD and Hawaiian Baby Woodrose on Christmas Eve 1998, at my shared flat at Theaterstra e 6, Erfurt.

– Headless, matte-black plaster sculpture I bought when I was in elementary school and later partially gilded and plated with silver.

– Poinsettia made of white paper.

– Cinzano bottle, like the one Christoph L schau had smashed over his head.

– Blank pistol, like the one fired to end the first part of the nocturnal disputes.

Bottom:

– Firewood from my father’s log pile, like the ones we used to heat the Theaterstraße 6 flat.

 

 

Room 6: Art

 
  1. Table display case

– Six vinyl records with covers I designed for 1st Decade Records: Northern Lite, Treat Me Better, 2001; Northern Lite, My Pain, 2003; Monosurround versus Raccoon Brothers, Greepy Guys / Fingerlicking Good, 2003; Junghan , Zu lieb, 2005; Warren Suicide, Listen to National Radio Stations, 2003; Northern Lite, Treat Me Better, picture disc, 2003.

– Booklet 3Y1ST for the third anniversary of 1st Decade Records, 2003.

– Photograph (color), 2004: Helmut Geier (DJ Hell) in Tokyo.

– Stamp, 1st Decade Records.

– Pick from Northern Lite.

– Flier I designed for a party for the Neo.Pop compilation series, 2001.

– Notice of receipt for my “1st Decade Records” wordmark registration at the German Patent and Trademark Office, 2002.

 

  1. Table display case

– Albert Renger-Patzsch and Ernst Jünger, Bäume, catalog (Ingelheim am Rhein, 1962).

– Albert Renger-Patzsch and Ernst Jünger, Gestein, catalog (Ingelheim am Rhein, 1966).

– Erik Niedling, Formation, catalog (Ostfildern, 2008).

– Erik Niedling, Fotografien/Photographs, catalog (Cologne, 2006).

– Erik Niedling, Status: EIKON Sonderdruck #11, catalog (Vienna, 2007).

– Erik Niedling, Blick, catalog (Erfurt, 2003).

– Erik Niedling, Produkt verschiedener Faktoren (Product of Various Factors), catalog (Erfurt, 2001).

– Erik Niedling, Blackbox #03, wood, glue, lacquer, concealed contents, 2003.

– Ham, given to me by my parents as a Christmas gift in 2006.

– Old tin box from the Niedling stationer’s shop in Erfurt.

– Sketchbook, 2003–9.

 

  1. Table display case

– Ingo Niermann, U.S. Rifle, composite wood, unlimited edition, 2008.

– Polaroid: my dog Butch who died in 2008.

– Butch’s collar.

– Erik Niedling and Jens Thiel, Nationalholz (National Wood), wood, unlimited edition, 2003.

– Erik Niedling and Jens Thiel, National Three A, newspaper with a text by Ingo Niermann (Erfurt, 2003).

– Pregnancy test (positive) belonging to my girlfriend Kitty Heckert, 2005.

– Forged nail that I found in 2005 while working on my Status photo series at the Angermuseum.

– Erik Niedling, Feuerzeug (Lighter), plastic lighter, gold leaf, unlimited edition, 2004.

– Ingo Niermann, Minusvisionen: Unternehmer ohne Geld, protocols (Frankfurt am Main, 2003), in which Jens Thiel says, “Meanwhile [Erik] has been hanging at all the German art fairs, but I think

it’s going to go international this year and with a little luck, our thing will be pulled along with the undertow.”

– Ingo Niermann, Umbauland: Zehn deutsche Visionen, essay (Frankfurt am Main, 2006), with one of the first descriptions of the idea of the Great Pyramid, a collective tomb for potentially every human being in the world.

– Ingo Niermann and Jens Thiel, eds., Solution 9: The Great Pyramid, essays (Berlin, 2008): Ingo Niermann describes how I (through Jens Thiel) started him on the idea of the Great Pyramid.

 
 
 

Room 7: The Future of Art

 

Table display case

– Ingo Niermann with Erik Niedling, The Future of Art: A Manual (Berlin, 2011).

– Horn purchased from Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge.

– A4 sketch of Pyramid Mountain by Ingo Niermann, 2010.

– Pen from Tobias Rehberger.

– Broken ax from Thomas Bayrle.

– Target I shot at Coney Island, 2010.

 
 
 

Room 8: My Last Year

 
 
  1. Table display case

– Luna magazine (Cologne, 2005): Ingo Niermann first describes his idea for the Last Year.

– Ingo Niermann, Choose Drill / Drill dich (Ostfildern, 2011).

– Wooden pyramids from Visoko, Bosnia, where, according to Semir Osmanagic, the largest pyramid in the world is concealed under a mountain.

– Hotel key from Visoko.

– BahnCard 100, the validity dates of which correspond with those of my Last Year (3/1/2011 to 2/29/2012).

– Three lottery tickets, filled in by me, 2011.

 

  1. Table display case

– Purchase contract for the works in the Chamber cycle, 2011.

– Six lists created in the course of my Last Year, 2011/12.

 

  1. Table display case

– AEG Traveller de Luxe typewriter, like the one used by Ernst Jünger.

– My Last Year, three diaries, 2011/12.

– Bread baked on a hot rock during a hike through the woods with Ingo Niermann, 2011.

– Rock from the steps of the Reichsparteitagsgelände (Nazi PartyRally Grounds) in Nuremberg.

– Walnuts from Niedling.

– Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel (Hamburg, 1926).

– Iron from the battlefield in Verdun.

 
 
 

Room 9 (East Hall): Preparations

 

Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann

Day, 2012

Inkjet on paper in a wooden frame, 230 x 180 cm.

*Area plan mapping events on the night of December 24, 1998.

 

Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann

Interview I, 2012

Laser print on paper, 194 pages, each 29.7 x 21 cm.

*Transcription of interviews Ingo Niermann conducted with individuals

who participated in the events on the night of December 24, 1998.

 

Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann

Tribunal of Reconciliation, 2012

Active speaker with built-in MP3 player, 3:46 min. sound loop, punching

bag, 103.3 x 50 x 300 cm.

*A speaker aimed at a punching bag plays a group EEG converted to

sound, recorded during a reunion of all those who were friends on

the night of December 24, 1998, and participated in the transpiring

events. The speaker and punching bag were located at the place the

events took place.

 

Erik Niedling

ST37, 2012

Steel, goat’s milk, laser, 197.3 x 2.5 cm.

*A steel rod I compressed at both ends and rubbed with goat’s milk,

the upper end of which is struck by a green laser beam. The first

impetus towards an escalation of the events on the night of December

24, 1998, came from a laser aimed at my eyes.

 

Erik Niedling

Cycle, 2012

C-print in a wooden frame, 167 x 125.5 cm.

*Reproduction of a print from a photograph of a photograph lifted

from a newspaper. The picture shows a Harley Davidson motorcycle

that I won as a prize at a carnival in 1986. The print has accompanied

me ever since and continues to fade more and more with each passing day.

 
 
 

Room 10 (West Hall): Tomb

 

Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann

Chamber, 2012

Inkjet on paper in a wooden frame, 230 x 180 cm.

*Construction plan for the Pyramid Mountain concept, which I

acquired from Ingo Niermann, along with my burial chamber.

 

Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann

Interview II, 2012

Laser print on paper, 780 pages, each 29.7 x 21 cm.

*Transcription of Ingo Niermann’s interview with me about my life.

 

Erik Niedling

Empire of the Sun, 2012

C-print in a wooden frame, 162.5 x 125.5 cm.

*My last large-format photograph, taken on a supposedly ancient

vegetation-covered pyramid in Visoko, Bosnia.

 

Erik Niedling

Particles, 2012

Soot behind glass in a wooden frame, seven parts, each 89 x 69 cm.

*Glass panes coated with soot from burning assorted parts of my

artistic archive.

 

Erik Niedling

Coffin, 2012

Zinc, wood, peat, 190 x 45 x 50 cm.

*Receptacle for preserving my corpse in Pyramid Mountain.

MY LAST YEAR

Average life expectancy can fool you into thinking you still have many years ahead. But what would it be like if you had only one left? What would you want to—what could you—experience in this limited period of time? Erik Niedling lived one year—from March 1, 2011 to February 29, 2012—as though it were his last.



My Last Year, 2011
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
List of People, 2011
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
Training Plan, 2011
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
Forest Passage, 2011
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
List of Works I/II, 2011
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
List of Works I/II, 2011
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
Wishes, 2011
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
Contract I/III, 2011 
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
Contract II/III, 2011 
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm
Contract III/III, 2011 
Typewriter on paper
21,1 x 29,3 cm

THE FUTURE OF ART

In 1831 Honoré de Balzac wrote a short story, The Unknown Masterpiece, in which he invented the abstract painting. Almost 200 years later, writer Ingo Niermann tries to follow in his footsteps to imagine a new epoch-making artwork. Together with the artist Erik Niedling he starts searching for the future of art and, seeking advice, meets key figures of the art world. With guidance by Thomas Bayrle, Olaf Breuning, Genesis and Lady Jaye Breyer P-Orridge, Olafur Eliasson, Harald Falckenberg, Boris Groys, Damien Hirst, Gregor Jansen, Terence Koh, Gabriel von Loebell, Marcos Lutyens, Philomene Magers, Antje Majewski, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Thomas Olbricht, Friedrich Petzel, and Tobias Rehberger.






Erik Niedling and Ingo Niermann – The Future of Art, 2010. Video, 150 min.