For his fascinating series “Favorites” (2013-2015), German artist Jan-Hendrik Pelz asked 66 artists to tell him their favorite film and give an arbitrary series of numbers as a time code. He then stopped the films at the relevant point and converted the resulting unforeseeable stills into oil paintings. The final set of compositions that has emerged out of this spontaneous collaboration includes a wide range of movies—from Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) to Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain (1973) to Martin Scorcese’s Goodfellas (1990). The collection gives the viewer a profound insight into popular culture. In 2014, “Favorites” was exhibited in Galleria Fuori Orbita in Locarno, Switzerland as part of the Locarno Film Festival.

Jan is always looking for ways in which he could leave behind traditional approaches to image creation. He derives inspiration from the projects of other artists, physics, psychology, mysticism, and also his environment. He enjoys working in teams because it usually turns out to be productive.

He writes: “Artists who only concern themselves with their own field of artistic endeavour generally find it difficult to recognise new stimuli and risk spinning in circles. Ultimately this is the case for every area of work.”

 

 

Jan was born in 1984 in Filderstadt in southern Germany. From 2007-2015, he studied at Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Stuttgart. In 2011, he won an art scholarship of the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd in Szekesfehervar, Hungary. He also attended the Hochschule für Kunst und Gestaltung in Basel, Switzerland on an Erasmus scholarship. At the moment, Jan is a master’s student under the artist Christian Jankowski in the Weissenhof Programme of Fine Arts, Stuttgart.

Currently the artist is working on two major projects. First is a video work called “Zaubertrank” (“Magic Potion”) with Johanna Mangold, in which both of them will brew a magic potion that transforms them into the world’s greatest artists. The second project is “Horst & Maria”, which is about two fictional characters, created by Christian Jankowski and 27 other artists based in Germany, as part of an artist-in-residency programme at Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul. The duo Horst and Maria always wear blonde wigs and matching outfits. Only their names and haircuts indicate a difference in gender. Horst and Maria have sequentially been “inhabited” by all 28 artists.

Links: Website (www.jan-pelz.de) | Facebook (www.facebook.com/Jan-Hendrik-Pelz-Art-496185220555246) | Saatchi Art (www.saatchiart.com/janpelz) | German Wikipedia (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan-Hendrik_Pelz)

Images used with permission.

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Selections:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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See the entire project:

 

1. Tim Hendel (*1984) / Taxi Driver (Director: Martin Scorsese, 1976) / Time: 100:08
2. Klaus Staeck (*1938) / Lohn der Angst (Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953) / Time: 70:00
3. Andrea Eitel (*1942) / Beeing John Malkovich (Director: Spike Jonze, 1999) / Time: 47:11
4. Johanna Mangold (*1984) / Labyrinth (Director: Jim Henson, 1986) / Time: 54:33
5. Wolfgang Neumann (*1977) / Life Of Brian (Director: Terry Jones, 1979) / Time: 33:33
6. Eckard Hahn (*1971) / No Country for Old Men (Director: Ethan and Joel Coen, 2007) / Time: 12:34
7. Alexandra Meyer (*1984) / Down By Law (Director: Jim Jarmusch, 1986) / Time: 47:09
8. Peter Kogler (*1959) / Scanners (Director: David Cronenberg, 1981) / Time: 12:29
9. Yves Netzhammer (*1970) / Apocalypse Now (Director: Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) / Time: 172:23
10. Mischa Kuball (*1959) / Zabriskie Point (Director: Michelangelo Antonioni, 1970) / Time: 99:00
11. André Butzer (*1973) / Mission to Mars (Director: Brian De Palma, 2000) / Time: 89:15
12. Moritz Götze (*1964) / Ein Kapitel für sich (Director: Eberhard Fechner, 1979) / Time: 45:09
13. Cordula Güdemann (*1955) / Der Mondmann (Director: Miloš Forman, 1999) / Time: 55:00
14. Byung Chul Kim (*1974) / Lady Vengeance (Director: Park Chan-wook, 2005) / Time: 12:07
15. Mike Bouchet (*1970) / Pootie Tang (Director: Louis C.K., 2011) / Time: 4:01
16. Birgit Brenner (*1964) / Magnolia (Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) / Time: 44:44
17. Holger Bunk (*1954) / Barry Lyndon (Director: Stanley Kubrick, 1975) / Time: 119:01
18. Rene Schoemakers (*1972) / Magnolia (Director: Paul Thomas Anderson, 1999) / Time: 123:09

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19. Norbert Bisky (*1970) / Thelma und Luise (Director: Ridley Scott, 1991) / Time: 23:00
20. Rainer Fetting (*1967) / Le Samurai (Director: Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967) / Time: 48:00
21. Timm Ulrichs (*1959) / The Girl Can’t Help It (Director: Frank Tashlin, 1956) / Time: 24:00
22. Reto Boller (*1966) / Vaters Garten (Director: Peter Liechti, 2013) / Time: 44:00
23. Friedemann Flöther (*1972) / The Big Lebowski (Director: Ethan and Joel Coen, 1998) / Time: 70:09
24. John Smith (*1952) / Mon Oncle (Director: Jacques Tati, 1958) / Time: 46:09
25. Christian Jankowski (*1968) / Vangelo secondo Matteo (Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964) / Time: 21:04
26. Rainer Ganahl (*1961) / Woman Under Influence (Director: John Cassavetes, 1974) / Time: 13:13
27. Hermann Nitsch (*1938) / La Passion de Jeanne d´Arc (Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928) / Time: 19:38
28. Leopold Rabus (*1977) / Les chevaux de feu (Director: Serguei Paradjanov, 1964) / Time: 45:09
29. Thomas Bechinger (*1960) / Dirty Pictures (Director: John Smith, 2007) / Time: 1:57
30. Renzo Martens (*1973) / France Tour Detour (Director: Jean-Luc Godard, 1977) / Time: 21:14
31. Seelenlos und Ärger (*1963, *1965) / Blutgeil (Director: Lö Lee, 1993) / Time: 19.30
32. Hans Peter Adamski (*1947) / Paris, Texas (Director: Wim Wenders, 1984) / Time: 18:08
33. Karl Heinz Jeron (*1962) / Sharknado (Director: Anthony C. Ferrante, 2013) / Time: 33:47
34. Pipilotti Rist (*1962) / Sedmikrasky (Director: Vera Chytilová, 1966) / Time: 54:54
35. Andreas Welzenbach (*1965) / Harold and Maude (Director: Hal Ashby, 1971) / Time: 9:10
36. Habib Asal (*1974) / America, America (Director: Elia Kazan, 1963) / Time: 77:33

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37. Jürgen Klauke (*1943) / The Holy Mountain (Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973) / Time: 69:27
38. Klaus vom Bruch (*1952) / Operation Pettycoat (Director: Blake Edwards, 1959) / Time: 110:25
39. Manuel G. Scheiwiller (*1984) / I.K.U. (Director: Shu Lea Cheang, 2000) / 12:04
40. Andrea Eva Györi (*1983) / Das Dschungelbuch (Director: Wolfgang Reitherman, 1967) / Time: 55:55
41. Santiago Sierra (*1966) / El Ángel exterminador (Director: Luis Buñuel, 1962) / Time: 8:00
42. Jen Ray (*1970) / Hausu (Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977) / Time: 50:05
43. Michael Borremans (*1963) / The Quiller Memorandum (Director: Michael Anderson, 1966) / Time: 67:16
44. Steven Orner (*1959) / Brazil (Director: Terry Gilliam, 1985) / Time: 66:38
45. Alan Jones (*1977) / The Blues Brothers (Director: John Landis, 1980 / Time: 37:23
46. Katharina Grosse (*1961) / Goodfellas (Director: Martin Scorsese, 1990) / Time: 56:03
47. Matthias Weischer (*1973) / Toystory 3 (Director: Lee Unkrich, 2010) / Time: 65:23
48. Jim Avignon (*1966) / Taking Off (Director: Miloš Forman, 1971) / Time: 20:05
49. Leiko Ikemura (*1951) / Ugetsu (Director: Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) / Time: 37:00
50. Olaf Breuning (*1970) / Prince of Darkness (Director: John Carpenter, 1987) / Time: 48:06
51. Alexander Roob (*1956) / Greed (Director: Erich von Stroheim, 1924) / Time: 37:50
52. Chrissy Angliker (*1983) / Easy Rider (Director: Dennis Hopper, 1969) / Time: 89:06
53. Jan-Hendrik Pelz (*1984) / Das boxende Känguruh (Director: Max Skladanowsky, 1895) / Time: 0:06
54. Jonas Burgert (*1969) / Andrej Rubljow (Director: Andrei Tarkowski, 1966) / Time: 111:11

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55. Sighard Gille (*1941) / Battle In Heaven (Director: Carlos Reygadas, 2005) / Time: 10:00
56. Gavin Turk (*1967) / The Holy Mountain (Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1973) / Time: 20:20
57. Veli und Amos (*1983, *1986) / Style Wars 2 (Director: Veli und Amos, 2014) / Time: 56:03
58. Miriam Vlaming (*1971) / Apocalypto (Director: Mel Gibson, 2006) / Time: 32:47
59. Charlie Stein (*1986) / Star Wars-The Empire Strikes Back (Director: Irvin Kershner, 1980) / Time: 18:04
60. Dieter Meier (*1945) / Ausser Atem (Director: Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) / Time: 33:33
61. John Baldessari (*1931) / North by Northwest (Director: Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) / Time: 12:34
62. Eva Weingart (*1988) / Halt auf freier Strecke (Director: Andreas Dresen, 2011) / Time: 19:57
63. Luc Tuymans (*1958) / Les yeux sans visage (Director: Georges Franju, 1960) / Time: 7:00
64. Gerard Kever (*1956) / The Last Temptation of Christ (Director: Martin Scorsese, 1988) / Time: 128:05
65. Jonathan Meese (*1970) / Zardoz (Director: John Boorman, 1974) / Time: 111:00
66. Marco Faisst (*1984) / Batman (Director: Tim Burton, 1989) / Time: 19:84

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