Edwin Zwakman is internationally renown for his photographic oeuvre based on maquettes. Right at the beginning of his career his impressive work of mostly monumental formates became noticed and appreciated by museum, curators and collectors. He was and still is one of the most important photographers who map the world through analogue images which make the viewer doubt what is reality after all.
A carefully framed, fictitious situation which is, however convincingly real, is Edwin Zwakman’s answer to the over-whelming stream of images inundating us every day and simulating (as with the CNN broadcasts of the Gulf War) a reality which more often than not, proves to be a lie. Zwakman, on the contrary, resorts to tricks and fabricates lies in order to tell uncomfortable truths. Although power and authority are barely suggested here, and only subtly represented trough their stereotypes, the effect is all the more powerful. For these stereotypes are omnipresent and have been etched deep in our collective memory. Juxtaposing them with each other in contradictory settings, Zwakman awakens hitherto un-defined, yet somehow familiar anxieties, as it were, from the interstice between one image and another, as though through cracks opening op to vision of a veritable abyss.
A carefully framed, fictitious situation which is, however convincingly real, is Edwin Zwakman’s answer to the over-whelming stream of images inundating us every day and simulating (as with the CNN broadcasts of the Gulf War) a reality which more often than not, proves to be a lie. Zwakman, on the contrary, resorts to tricks and fabricates lies in order to tell uncomfortable truths. Although power and authority are barely suggested here, and only subtly represented trough their stereotypes, the effect is all the more powerful. For these stereotypes are omnipresent and have been etched deep in our collective memory. Juxtaposing them with each other in contradictory settings, Zwakman awakens hitherto un-defined, yet somehow familiar anxieties, as it were, from the interstice between one image and another, as though through cracks opening op to vision of a veritable abyss.
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CV
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Tree Hugger Shanghai China 2010
About
De keuze van... Otto Nan
'' Edwin Zwakman's photos look like images that you often see in everyday life, but are actually too boring to watch with attention. But when you look better, a world opens up at Zwakman: is it real, am I right? And does that only apply to this work of art or also when I walk through the city? "
Otto Nan
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Edwin Zwakman (1969, The Hague, the Netherlands) graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, NL in 1993 and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, NL in 1997. In 1992, he did an Erasmus Exchange with the Städelschule in Frankfurt/M, in the class of Prof. Thomas Bayrle. His work is in museum collections, public space and private and public collections in the Netherlands, USA, China and throughout Europe. Selected shows by Edwin Zwakman are: ‘Les Printemps de Haute Corrèz’, Center of Contemporary Art, Meymac, FR (2020) ‘The Model’, Collectie De Groen, Arnhem, NL (2020); ‘Vedute’, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL (2019); ‘Modelled Nature’ in Contemporary Photography (2019) Kallmann-Museum, Ismaning, DE; Ludwig Galerie, Saarlouis, DE & Stadtgalerie Kiel, DE; ‘Reality is not a Place II’, Neues Museum, Nürnberg, DE (2018); ‘Light Box’, Kunstmuseum Celle mit Sammlung Robert Simon, Celle, DE (2018); ‘Het trage lage Land’, Museum MORE Gorssel, NL (2018); ‘Time Space Architecture’, Cityscape Amsterdam, NL (2017); ‘Step into my Office’, Gimpel Fils Gallery London, UK (2016); ‘A Gathering: Memory and Reconstruction’, Pujiang Overseas Chinese Town Ten-years Public Art Project Shanghai, CN (2016); ‘A Place to be’, Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, NL (2015); ‘Reality is not a place’, AKINCI, NL (2014), ‘Las lágrimas de las cosas’, Centro des Artes Visuales Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, ES (2014); ‘Vanished Boundaries’, OCT Art Museum, Shanghai (with Liu Jianhua, curated by Zhuang Huan 2011); ‘HUG’, Theater in Motion, Beijing (2009); ‘Fake but Accurate’, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, NL (2008); ‘Iconic Target’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2007); Maison Européenne de la Photographie Paris, France (2006); ‘Fake but Accurate’, Gimpel Fils Gallery, London (2005); Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam (2003); Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2002); Taipei Biennial (2002) and more.
CV
Edwin Zwakman (1969, The Hague, the Netherlands) graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, NL in 1993 and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam, NL in 1997. In 1992, he did an Erasmus Exchange with the Städelschule in Frankfurt/M, in the class of Prof. Thomas Bayrle. His work is in museum collections, public space and private and public collections in the Netherlands, USA, China and throughout Europe. Selected shows by Edwin Zwakman are: ‘Les Printemps de Haute Corrèz’, Center of Contemporary Art, Meymac, FR (2020) ‘The Model’, Collectie De Groen, Arnhem, NL (2020); ‘Vedute’, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL (2019); ‘Modelled Nature’ in Contemporary Photography (2019) Kallmann-Museum, Ismaning, DE; Ludwig Galerie, Saarlouis, DE & Stadtgalerie Kiel, DE; ‘Reality is not a Place II’, Neues Museum, Nürnberg, DE (2018); ‘Light Box’, Kunstmuseum Celle mit Sammlung Robert Simon, Celle, DE (2018); ‘Het trage lage Land’, Museum MORE Gorssel, NL (2018); ‘Time Space Architecture’, Cityscape Amsterdam, NL (2017); ‘Step into my Office’, Gimpel Fils Gallery London, UK (2016); ‘A Gathering: Memory and Reconstruction’, Pujiang Overseas Chinese Town Ten-years Public Art Project Shanghai, CN (2016); ‘A Place to be’, Kunstfort Vijfhuizen, NL (2015); ‘Reality is not a place’, AKINCI, NL (2014), ‘Las lágrimas de las cosas’, Centro des Artes Visuales Fundación Helga de Alvear, Cáceres, ES (2014); ‘Vanished Boundaries’, OCT Art Museum, Shanghai (with Liu Jianhua, curated by Zhuang Huan 2011); ‘HUG’, Theater in Motion, Beijing (2009); ‘Fake but Accurate’, Huis Marseille, Amsterdam, NL (2008); ‘Iconic Target’, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen (2007); Maison Européenne de la Photographie Paris, France (2006); ‘Fake but Accurate’, Gimpel Fils Gallery, London (2005); Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam (2003); Centraal Museum, Utrecht (2002); Taipei Biennial (2002) and more.
Monographs
Dennis Adams, Edwin Zwakman, New York City (Spencer Brownstone Gallery) 1997
Johannes Mol, Delocaties: over de plaats van het woord in het beeld, 05 Tussen verveling en fascinatie: over constructie, doelmatigheid en delocatie in de moderne kunst, Rotterdam (Centrum Beeldende Kunst) 1998
Jan Debbaut, Kate Bush, Jaap Guldemond, Façades, Rotterdam
(Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum/NAi Publishers) 1999
Anniek Vrij, Het onthaaste kijken, Schiedam (Stedelijk Museum Schiedam) 2003
liesbeth Melis, Marianne Brouwer, Tom van Gestel, Het Gat. Een kunstwerk van Edwin Zwakman, Amsterdam (SKOR) 2005
M. Brouwer, H. Kunde, E. Barents/S. Asser, Fake but accurate, Munich (Schirmer & Mosel2008
Huang Zhuan, Marianne Brouwer, Vanished Boundaries Edwin Zwakman/Liu Jianhua, 2 Monos in Castette, Shanghai (OCT Publishing) 2011
Monographs
Dennis Adams, Edwin Zwakman, New York City (Spencer Brownstone Gallery) 1997
Johannes Mol, Delocaties: over de plaats van het woord in het beeld, 05 Tussen verveling en fascinatie: over constructie, doelmatigheid en delocatie in de moderne kunst, Rotterdam (Centrum Beeldende Kunst) 1998
Jan Debbaut, Kate Bush, Jaap Guldemond, Façades, Rotterdam
(Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum/NAi Publishers) 1999
Anniek Vrij, Het onthaaste kijken, Schiedam (Stedelijk Museum Schiedam) 2003
liesbeth Melis, Marianne Brouwer, Tom van Gestel, Het Gat. Een kunstwerk van Edwin Zwakman, Amsterdam (SKOR) 2005
M. Brouwer, H. Kunde, E. Barents/S. Asser, Fake but accurate, Munich (Schirmer & Mosel2008
Huang Zhuan, Marianne Brouwer, Vanished Boundaries Edwin Zwakman/Liu Jianhua, 2 Monos in Castette, Shanghai (OCT Publishing) 2011