Mariel Poppe seeks inspiration for her sculptures in the monuments of the Hanseatic town of Salzwedel
Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, 19.01.2024: In a small, informal round of talks, Mariel Poppe introduced herself as the first scholarship holder of the artist and scholarship holder house of the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel in 2024. On January 9, 2024, the visual artist moved into the premises in Kleine Predigerstraße and will dedicate herself to her work there until the end of March.
Mariel Poppe is fascinated by the building material “brick” because of its simplicity and unpretentiousness, which is precisely why it offers so many design possibilities. Many striking public buildings in the Altmark, such as town halls, schools, industrial buildings and towers, are made of brick.
During her scholarship at the artists’ and scholarship holders’ house, Mariel Poppe would like to focus on the architectural monuments of the Hanseatic town of Salzwedel. The towers of the town and the surrounding area in particular, such as the castle tower, the water tower and the old Hoyersburg border tower, will provide the artist with inspiration.
“I use found bricks to build possible and impossible tower structures that are deprived of the power of monuments: towers, crooked and crooked, perfectly imperfect, manneristically playful and bizarrely surreal. The more different the found objects, the better: “Whether shaped bricks, glazed bricks, perforated or brick strands, hollow bricks, all shapes and models have their very own charm and their own story,” says the artist about her project. “I hope to find plenty of material for my work here in the area.”
She calls these works “architectural exclamation marks”, which she wants to stage photographically and use as components in collages and drawings in connection with the urban space of Salzwedel as well as the natural space of the Green Belt.
Scales are manipulated in the process. This means that the perception of the proportions fluctuates between miniaturization and monumentalization.
Mariel Poppe will present the works she has created in Salzwedel and her career to date to the public as part of the artists’ café at the district adult education center on 21.03.2024. Separate information on this date will be provided in advance.
More about Mariel Poppe
Mariel Poppe was born in Gießen in 1968 and lives and works in Berlin, where she also has a studio. From 1988 to 1990, she studied art education and German language and literature at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. After attending the “Ecole des Beaux Arts de Dijon” in France, where she specialized in painting, she began studying at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin in 1992. From March to June 1996, she studied photography at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Mariel Poppe graduated in 1998 with a focus on sculpture, object art, installation and photography at the Hochschule der Künste in Berlin under Prof. Lothar Baumgarten. Mariel Poppe’s works of art have been on display in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Dresden, Berlin, Frankfurt (Oder), Carinthia, Mexico City, Bremen and many more.
More information about Mariel Poppe and her work can be found on her website www.marielpoppe.de.
To the scholarship house
In the historic town center of the Hanseatic town of Salzwedel, the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel maintains a listed half-timbered house as an artist and scholarship house with an international focus. The institution thrives on the partnership between the state of Saxony-Anhalt and the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel. The state of Saxony-Anhalt awards scholarships to artists who then live in Salzwedel for three months and can work artistically on a secure financial basis. In an idyllic and peaceful setting, artists find ideal working and living conditions in the artists’ and scholarship holders’ house.
Pictures: @ www.altmarkkreis-salzwedel.de