
What is left when someone has gone? In his exhibition at Anton Janizewski, artist Ferdinand Dölberg, born in Eisenach in 1998, searches for images for the gap left by the death of a loved one. After his father died, the abstract theme of grief became a reality for Dölberg. In the elegant gallery space, he has now placed larger-than-life paintings of a mourning community on the walls, surrounding the viewers. Each portrait shows a guest carrying an object in his or her hands – sometimes it’s an umbrella, sometimes a bouquet of flowers. Sometimes, too, the mourners hold more absurd mementos, such as a heat lamp or a handcart. Dölberg demonstrates in simple gestures how we remember. By allowing the funeral procession to exist in all its surreality, he proves that even the most seemingly mundane mementos matter.
On each painting, Dölberg has also placed a small, blank piece of paper. Does the piece of paper represent the vacuum that remains forever? For everything that could not be said – not even in a suicide note? He leaves this open to interpretation and links the image of the gap to the main work of the show as well. At first glance, Dölberg’s work “Am Ende die Leerstelle” seems like an abstract painting. Only upon closer inspection does it become apparent that, like a sliding puzzle, it consists of eleven variable pieces and an empty space. The audience can move the pieces freely and thus assemble a resting figure: the person commemorated by the mourners. In this show, Dölberg impressively portrays how individual remembrance can be, how playful it can be. Without saccharine sentimentality, he shows that the loss of another leaves a void that can no longer be filled with life – but rather with memories.
Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Sascha Herrmann
Galerie Anton Janizewski, Goethestr.69, 10625 Berlin–Charlottenburg; map
Ferdinand Dölberg: “Am Ende die Leerstelle” until 08.07.2023
Wed–Fri 12–18h, Sat 12–16h
@ferdinanddoelberg
@galerie_anton_janizewski