Eric Meier

Vaterland

5.9.-26.10.2024

Opening: 5.9.2024, 5-9pm

„What makes loneliness so unbearable is the loss of one’s own self which can be realized in solitude, but confirmed in its identity only by the trusting and trustworthy company of my equals. In this situation, man loses trust in himself as the partner of his thoughts and that elementary confidence in the world which is necessary to make experiences at all. Self and world, capacity for thought and experience are lost at the same time.“ 

(Source: Hannah Arendt: The Origins of Totalitarianism,
The World Publishing Company, Ohio 1958, p. 477) 

Eyes, it is said, are the window to the soul. They have the ability to reflect lies, humour, pain and joy. If you look into the eyes of the people portrayed by Eric Meier, pale faces return your gaze, tired and empty. They bear witness to a long-overlooked fate in the history of East German transformation after reunification. With his „Vaterland“ (Fatherland) series of works, which shows men from a residential centre for alcoholics in Eisenhüttenstadt, the artist, who was born in East Berlin and grew up in Frankfurt an der Oder, undertakes a memorable and touching contemplation of this history, giving new visibility to people forgotten by society.

In doing so, he focuses his gaze on what many might turn away from. Like an archaeologist, he uncovers the traces that the fall of the Wall and the accompanying changes left on people and cities in all their ambivalence. The resulting images of the alcoholic men are distinctly unembellished and honest. Every part of their bodies is ruthlessly scrutinised, the gaze directed at legs marked by scars, necks stained by sweat and hands shaped by work. With their backs bent by the weight of the past, the subjects hang limply in their chairs, their posture appearing as a grotesque quotation of a long-lost pose of masculinity. What once stood for strength and self-confidence now reveals an irrepressible vulnerability in its brokenness.

It seems as if the ambivalent life stories, oscillating between longing for freedom and neglect, can be found in the clothing of the people portrayed. The shirts, as old as the fading tattoos on the men’s arms, are washed out and stand in contrast to the logos and images they show. Whether ‘Pink Floyd’, ‘Camp David’ or the depiction of a stereotypical image of an indigenous North American: In this sense, the US motifs refer to a promise of freedom that was never really fulfilled for those photographed. Like the clothing, their dream of freedom is reveals itself as worn out, used up and degenerated into a stereotypical idea. 

What people are often left with in the face of their shattered dreams, dashed hopes and false promises is anger. In Meier’s work, this feeling is expressed in the series ‘’Tage der Wut‘’ (Days of Rage). It shows monochrome rectangular surfaces that embody their bleakness. They are reminiscent of Malevich’s black squares, similarly expressing a sense of emptiness and heaviness. But unlike the Russian avant-gardist, Meier’s charcoal drawings are not impenetrable. Instead, they are permeated by a subtle noise behind which something else seems to hide. They trigger a searching uncertainty in the viewer, evoking an emotional world that still  today characterises the reunification generation of the former GDR.

In the former GDR, glass blocks and exposed aggregate concrete slabs were symbols of architectural progress, just as steel workers in the industry once were. They stood for stability, straightforwardness and modernity and characterised the images of East German cities. In his work ‘Aufbau(Ost)’, Meier takes up these iconic objects and presents them in the centre of the exhibition, deformed and swept into a pile of rubbish. It is the rubbish of the past that literally stands in the way, over which you stumble. At the same time it exudes a glamour reminiscent of the almost unnaturally polished East German city centres, which often stand in contrast to their urban life. Aufbau Ost: more appearance than reality. This aesthetic of neglect is complemented by the work ‘Tunnelblick’. With the words ‘Ost’ (East) carved into the wall, Meier brings graffiti from a run-down S-Bahn underpass in Eisenhüttenstadt into the gallery, thus creating a heading to his work that cannot be overlooked. 

The past and present of the East is carved in stone. As sociologist Steffen Mau shows, it has never disappeared and continues to determine the reality of life for the people living there. Society must not ignore the associated life stories, but rather take a closer look and bring them to the centre of our social reflection, especially in view of the political situation in the new federal states. Eric Meier’s exhibition sets a good example in an expressive and at the same time very sensitive way by dealing with the past in its sometimes confusing ambivalence and complexity and thus critically commenting on the present and the future.

Friedrich Weißbach