Thomas Demand

 

This is a wallpaper, offset-printed in eighteen parts, showing an image I made this spring. It's an artificial forest, consisting of a mere 280,000 leaves made out of paper. (We had just finished pasting the piece when Jason took his photo.) The idea is to quote the '70s medium of photo wallpaper; it's printed by the same company that established that form in the late '60s. I made the piece just for Venice, but of course it should have its life independently of that. I have never done anything of this size or effort before. It's a panorama rather than a picture on the wall or a film. I wanted to situate it right in the middle of a park. I have also never employed such heavy emotional connotations before. This is all about the clichéd and uplifting moment while being totally fabricated at the same time. I found this spot, which is in the center of the Biennale circus, laid out like a stage for a seaside brass band. So that's partly why I wanted to create some festive character. After close inspection, you should realize that there is too much for you to see in the image, too many details.