01

it is an odd feeling to write a text that one can assume very few people will read. when those who are able and willing to read succumb to the visual implosion of post-capitalist overstimulation in order to quickly continue tindering image after image, the accompanying text smears into a flurry of snow, a blind text in the truest sense of the word. although on the one hand text seems to be disappearing as a meaningful, enriching element of human communication, it is also the supporting base of a rapidly spreading hyperpoliticization. written language, categorized according to its relevance, becomes a binding key to the world with the new context assigned to it.

02

the world behind the world sought by writers, poets and artists a hundred years ago, eloquently presented to astonished, bourgeois gawkers as surrealism, is a dreamed-up vision of two opposites rubbing each other to create new imagery. the newly hatched ism is wrapped slit-eyed with a cautious protective zone and called play. almost half a century later, the post-structuralists around derrida, barthes and foucault subvert language itself. their activities, curiously also called play, do not seek to add an alternative perspective, on the contrary – their aim is to disrupt it, to initiate ambiguities. in fact, lewandowsky’s early artistic development is characterized by the visual language and the underlying psychoanalytical interest in the subconscious and above all the dream world of max ernst, who was called a surrealist but never professed to be one.

03

wanting to add a second, expanding level to so-called reality is the motive and future focus of the artist, who was born and grew up in the gdr. his graphic cycles, created at this time and resumed today, breathe life into and expand ernst’s artistic canon with subtle discoveries. studying stage design in dresden also opened up the artist’s access to three-dimensional space and the sounds within it. from now on, nothing is safe from his grasp. the lewis carroll wonderland drunk on a white rabbit, jeffrey lebowski succumbing to white russians – everything is eyed by lewandowsky as possible raw material to be worked on, in accordance with the saying ’nothing is as surreal as reality‘, which was put into the dude’s mouth here.

04

being inside someone else’s head for once, even if only for an hour, is a popular bon mot and wishful thinking, to be allowed to feel one’s way into the world of another’s thoughts. the opportunity to experience lewandowsky’s creative master control program produces a dizzying brainwave. the sheer boundlessness of his interest in the world of things, his greed to inhale them, only to find them expelled again, including his repair, his commentary, makes you gasp. lewandowsky does not invent the supermarket of ‚everything is art‘, he rather opens the delicatessen department there. originally coming from the double world of the surrealists, the artist now, in the spirit of the post-structuralists, grinds everything and anything into small pieces in order to throw the resulting granulate back onto the wall with a big grin. only a canary that likes to stand on its head would come up with the idea of stealing the rough fiber from the rough fiber wallpaper.

05

expanding and fragmenting – the trail of images and objects, which documents the artist’s branching paths on his rich excursions, points unerringly to the question of what remains now that everything has been added in form by lewandowsky’s shredder, assimilated in language, in short – modified with macabre wit, always in sharp contrast to silliness. this is the task of the artist, may be the simple answer, but is this enough for the viewer panting for an explanation? the little stick to be thrown not only delights the attentive dog. as in the days of the surrealists and post-structuralists, values are renegotiated as anchors of social structures. in the change of visions and their astonishing parallels, the artist cheerfully joins in the discussion with his questioning of supposedly established positions. strengthened with universal interest and maturely realized playfulness in his repair workshop, he transforms boundary stones into noisy question marks.

martin eugen raabenstein, 2023

more at vialewandowsky.com

via lewandowsky

01

it is an odd feeling to write a text that one can assume very few people will read. when those who are able and willing to read succumb to the visual implosion of post-capitalist overstimulation in order to quickly continue tindering image after image, the accompanying text smears into a flurry of snow, a blind text in the truest sense of the word. although on the one hand text seems to be disappearing as a meaningful, enriching element of human communication, it is also the supporting base of a rapidly spreading hyperpoliticization. written language, categorized according to its relevance, becomes a binding key to the world with the new context assigned to it.

02

the world behind the world sought by writers, poets and artists a hundred years ago, eloquently presented to astonished, bourgeois gawkers as surrealism, is a dreamed-up vision of two opposites rubbing each other to create new imagery. the newly hatched ism is wrapped slit-eyed with a cautious protective zone and called play. almost half a century later, the post-structuralists around derrida, barthes and foucault subvert language itself. their activities, curiously also called play, do not seek to add an alternative perspective, on the contrary – their aim is to disrupt it, to initiate ambiguities. in fact, lewandowsky’s early artistic development is characterized by the visual language and the underlying psychoanalytical interest in the subconscious and above all the dream world of max ernst, who was called a surrealist but never professed to be one.

03

wanting to add a second, expanding level to so-called reality is the motive and future focus of the artist, who was born and grew up in the gdr. his graphic cycles, created at this time and resumed today, breathe life into and expand ernst’s artistic canon with subtle discoveries. studying stage design in dresden also opened up the artist’s access to three-dimensional space and the sounds within it. from now on, nothing is safe from his grasp. the lewis carroll wonderland drunk on a white rabbit, jeffrey lebowski succumbing to white russians – everything is eyed by lewandowsky as possible raw material to be worked on, in accordance with the saying ’nothing is as surreal as reality‘, which was put into the dude’s mouth here.

04

being inside someone else’s head for once, even if only for an hour, is a popular bon mot and wishful thinking, to be allowed to feel one’s way into the world of another’s thoughts. the opportunity to experience lewandowsky’s creative master control program produces a dizzying brainwave. the sheer boundlessness of his interest in the world of things, his greed to inhale them, only to find them expelled again, including his repair, his commentary, makes you gasp. lewandowsky does not invent the supermarket of ‚everything is art‘, he rather opens the delicatessen department there. originally coming from the double world of the surrealists, the artist now, in the spirit of the post-structuralists, grinds everything and anything into small pieces in order to throw the resulting granulate back onto the wall with a big grin. only a canary that likes to stand on its head would come up with the idea of stealing the rough fiber from the rough fiber wallpaper.

05

expanding and fragmenting – the trail of images and objects, which documents the artist’s branching paths on his rich excursions, points unerringly to the question of what remains now that everything has been added in form by lewandowsky’s shredder, assimilated in language, in short – modified with macabre wit, always in sharp contrast to silliness. this is the task of the artist, may be the simple answer, but is this enough for the viewer panting for an explanation? the little stick to be thrown not only delights the attentive dog. as in the days of the surrealists and post-structuralists, values are renegotiated as anchors of social structures. in the change of visions and their astonishing parallels, the artist cheerfully joins in the discussion with his questioning of supposedly established positions. strengthened with universal interest and maturely realized playfulness in his repair workshop, he transforms boundary stones into noisy question marks.

martin eugen raabenstein, 2023

more at vialewandowsky.com