Shane Lavalette

60 photographs collected from private archives of people called Karin Sander, 2002
© Karin Sander

For the work “Karin Sander”, German, Swiss and Austrian telephone listings were used to find the addresses of women with the same name. They each received a letter with the request to make a personal photograph available for a work by Karin Sander. The altogether 60 photographs received from Karin Sanders each one a self-chosen representation of the respective person were framed in identical formats and melted together as one work, which establishes a subtle gap between biography, history, social situation, time, place and artistic action.

The viewer unconsciously starts to think about all these individual Karin Sanders; who they might be, what their lives look like, what they do and what made them take part in this project. At first, the biography of the artist Karin Sander retreats behind this project just as in her other works, but on a second view it becomes obvious that she expresses herself distinctly, especially here. It is her very own action, which brings all these Karin Sanders together and shows in a very simple manner that the configuration of each biography – the shape of our lives, is precisely linked to the interaction of history, time, place and all persons and actions one has to deal with, even if they do not have the same name as us. The viewer starts to develop a personal relationship to each of them.

- Harald Welzer

When I saw this work by Karin Sander I was instantly reminded of this conversation.