Jochen Gerz

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While studying in Cologne, London, and Basel, Jochen Gerz focused on poetry, translating Ezra Pound and Richard Aldington into German by 1959. His texts evolved into visual forms, leading him to join the visual poetry movement in 1966 after settling in Paris. In 1968, he co-founded the experimental editorial group Agentzia. Throughout the late sixties, Gerz explored multiple artistic avenues, critiquing both commercial and self-created media while engaging spectators in the creative process. His photo/text works, primarily in black and white until 1987, highlighted the tension between image and text. His performances, installations, and videos examined art's social function, reflecting on early modernism's radical movements and addressing the impact of 20th-century genocides, particularly the Holocaust, in relation to his German identity. Gerz represented Germany at the Venice Biennale in 1976 and participated in Documenta 6 and 7 in 1977 and 1987. In the 1980s, he was commissioned to create monuments that subverted traditional commemoration, transforming spectators into authors and radically altering the relationship between art and viewer through active participation.