Almost no other place in Germany is viewed with as much prejudice as Sylt. Yet the supposed “island of beautiful people” has countless facets. When the summer is over and tourism ebbs, it becomes quiet and melancholy. Then the landscape shows its true face: a timeless beauty marked by the traces of civilization, which makes for amusing, contradictory situations. In a long-term project, selected artists and photographers spent five years traveling the island and depicting its picturesque or dismal sides, sometimes in documentary, other times in artistic form. Along with earlier photographs, some of them dating from the sixties, this publication features an interesting variety of views of Sylt—from the soft, sandy beaches to the absurd concrete deserts. The accompanying essays explore the notion of wanderlust or indulge in a certain pleasure in critical comedy.

 

Artists featured:
 

Julia Baier, Peter Bialobrzeski, Jörg Brüggemann, Denis Brudna, Tine Casper, Christian Diehl, Christoph Engel, Hans Hansen, Volker Hinz, Britta Isenrath, Martin Kollar, Ingar Krauss, Martin Liebscher, Robert Lebeck, Julia Maria Max, Dita Pepe, Christian Popkes, Martin Pudenz, Anja Schaffner, Evzen Sobek, Grit Schwerdtfeger, Susanne Schleyer/Michael J. Stephan, Thomas Wrede
 
Exhibition schedule: Willy-Brandt-Haus, Berlin, July 6 - August 27, 2012 | Stiftung kunst:raum sylt quelle, Rantum, opening May, 2013