Michael Franz: New Sad

Michael Franz was born in Neustadt/Waldnaab in 1974 and grew up in the Upper Palatinate. As a young adult, he became fascinated by the local party scene, and he was interested in photography from an early age. Franz worked for the electronic music fanzine SUCKer, founded in the district of Schwandorf in 1995, as a photographer at techno parties in the region during the fanzine’s early years. At the same time, he also took photographs of his private excursions through the towns and villages of the Upper Palatinate or of his visits to public events. His desire to become an artist became more concrete, and he eventually matriculated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg. He now lives in Berlin but has always maintained close ties with the Upper Palatinate.

For his exhibition at the Kebbel-Villa, Franz has meticulously reviewed the more than 10,000 photographs he took at the time – 25 years ago: Photographs of friends, family, parties, landscapes, concerts, and political events. These images form the source material for his exploration of how memory can be addressed through the media of reproduction, photography and video. The works on display merge memories of growing up in the rural Upper Palatinate with motifs from the early days of Franz's artistic practice, and then increasingly with images that can be read as an ominous foreshadowing of current crises. The title 'New Sad', which is simply the combination of the letters on the license plates of the two neighboring districts of Neustadt/Waldnaab and Schwandorf, sets the mood.

Michael Franz (*1974 in Neustadt/Waldnaab, lives in Berlin) began his studies in 1997 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg with Professor Hans-Peter Reuter and at the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Karlsruhe with Professor Dieter Kiessling. In 2003 he graduated as a Meisterschüler of Hans-Peter Reuter in Nuremberg. His work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently at Galerie Lars Friedrich and Kienzle Art Foundation in Berlin and the Neues Museum in Nuremberg. Together with Eva Raschpichler, Michael Hakimi and others, he organises the exhibition space kunstbunker - forum für zeitgenössische kunst e.V. in Nuremberg. He has taught at various art academies and is currently professor ad interim of photography for contemporary art at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig.

A publication will accompany the exhibition.

Exhibition program:
Sun, 30.04.2023, 14:45: Guided tour of the exhibition
Sat, 06.05.2023, 19:00: Artist talk: Michael Franz and Hans-Jürgen Hafner (curator, author, art critic) and release of the exhibition publication, followed by a DJ set by Hans-Jürgen Hafner and drinks.