STUDIO LEGALE

 

The authorization by a befriended artist to put his imitated signature on just finished drawings in 2007 leads to an intimate play of authorship, the traces of which can be seen in originals and documenting photographs.

 

 

 

GEORG-SCHMITT-PLATZ

In the summer of 2008, Georg Joachim Schmitt went to his home town Trier to set himself a monument while still being alive. He renamed the Georg-Schmitt-place (named after a 19th-century composer) to Georg-Schmitt-place. This rededication took place without media notice, so that the street sign put up by him is probably the most unobtrusive piece of art in a public place.

 

 

 

KÜNSTLERGELÜBDE

On March the 14th in 2009 was the 50th anniversary of the legendary airdrop of 250.000 artists’ manifests by the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely over the city of Düsseldorf. As an homage to a great fellow artist and a commemoration of this wonderful art happening, Schmitt dropped artists’ vows written by himself over the City of Cologne, as testimonies of personal and professional autonomy.

 

 

 

RHEINTAUFE

 

On October 23rd in 2009, exactly on the date of  the ten millionth birthday of the river Rhine, the most famous river in Europe was baptized not far from the Niehl harbor in Cologne. The water used for the baptism consisted of the water of its feeder rivers, the name it was baptized was Rhine. A brass tablet put up at the place of baptism from now on commemorates the memorable jubilee.

 

 

 

DEUTUNGS-ÜBERLASSUNG

In a ceremonial act, the author and film critic Dr. Dietrich Kuhlbrodt handed over to the artist the prerogative of the exclusive interpretation of his complete works for life, in October 2009. This legally binding handover marks a turning point in the discussion of prerogatives of interpretation in cultural discourses.

 

 

 

SPELLING LETTERS

 

"Spelling Letters" is a collaborative project between Georg Joachim Schmitt and the computer programmer Markus Braach (Zurich/Switzerland). It is about a never ending large book with 27 chapters. Every chapter has as its title a letter of the alphabet. Based on the phonetic alphabet for the English language, a programme has been created, which allows each letter to be phonetically spelled out in such a way that the spelling words (e.g. Yellow for Y) are in turn spelled out word-for-letter by word-for-letter. This continues in a never ending process. Interestingly it deals with a fractal rather than a purely repetitive sequence of sentences.

 

 

 

UNSEEN MASTERPIECES

 

A series of drawings is completed in darkness, placed in envelopes and sealed - still in darkness. Only the recipient of one of the envelopes gets to see the work for the first time – or leaves the works in the condition of never-having-been-seen.