Rendered Real

After "Splendid Voids - The Immersive Works of Kurt Hentschläger", "Rendered Real - The Mediated Landscapes of Kurt Hentschläger" is the second book on the fascinating works of the artist (b. 1960 in Linz, lives and works in New York). The first volume presented his immersive installations, the second deals with his video works and projections. The focus is on landscape photographs that have been combined with human-made forms and computer-generated structures. The audiovisual works have nothing to do with a romantic notion of retreating into nature, but question apparent contradictions such as creating nature versus created nature or real physical experiences versus images conveyed by the media.

His latest work ORT, which was created in Le Havre, France and for which Rendered Real was published, is a 360-degree projection around Oscar Niemeyer's Le Volcan building. Beautiful, almost idyllic landscape shots are shown and immediately deconstructed. In combination with images of mechanically moving heads, explosions and urban scenes, they are superimposed to create a surreal, constantly changing, non-linear narrative. Media-reflective moments and irritations evoke critical thinking about constructed media images and our idea of nature in the 21st century.

With a text by Daniel Rourke.