Building site of I. G. Farben 1929

Curator: Editor: This is Pauline Kowarzik’s "Building site of I. G. Farben," created in 1929 with colored pencil, pastel and paper. It gives me the chills with its eerie lighting, what strikes you first? Curator: What do you make of the intense focus on process evident here? The layered pastels, the drawing emerging from the page? This isn't just a representation; it’s about the act of construction, both of the building and of the image itself. Consider I.G. Farben as a conglomerate, a titan of industry, crucial to Germany’s war effort, produced Zyklon B… Editor: So you are suggesting it’s less about the aesthetics and more about what is actually happening. The materials represent labor itself? Curator: Exactly! Kowarzik’s rendering shows the *means* by which such an entity came into being; those ephemeral strokes mirror labor in a specific moment and reflect both promise and a troubling potential. What's produced, and the *how* it's produced—are inextricable. The artist is foregrounding material process and socio-economic conditions. Editor: Wow, that makes me see it in a completely different way. I was initially focusing on its abstract qualities, but understanding the materiality of art brings a heavier, and very pertinent dimension. Curator: Precisely! Kowarzik prompts us to question the values and human cost embedded in every brick, in every pencil stroke. It's about accountability and art’s place within production, not just in a gallery. Editor: This has given me a lot to think about. Thanks for digging a bit below the surface. Curator: Likewise; every interaction transforms and enriches art for us all.