Lukas Einsele — One Step Beyond

In his project One Step Beyond (OSB), www.one-step-beyond.de, Lukas Einsele has been researching the worldwide phenomenon of the landmine, its victims and its relation with the social and physical environment.

Einsele traveled together with photographer Andreas Zierhut to minefields and other areas in the world’s four most heavily mined countries: Angola, Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Cambodia. Einsele’s work explores the interrelationships between landmines and their victims against the backdrop of global politics, revealing his findings in the form of photos, graphics, texts and interviews.

OSB is based on memory and stories: People injured by a mine recount the events leading up to the accident in an interview with the artist. Some make a rough sketch of the incident’s location. With a field camera Einsele makes a photographic portrait of each participant, and leaves a Polaroid copy behind. Finally, in a public forum, the victims’ stories, drawings and portraits are set alongside the documentation of the landmine and the photos of the area.

With the specific cohesion of the various visual elements and project components (website, presentations, publications and installations) Einsele strives to articulate a new esthetic and political space, in which a wide range of information and visual materials can be communicated and presented to the public in a distinctive manner.

OSB is based on collaborations, relationships are a central component of the project. The core group of collaborators includes: Jessica Beebone (project coordination), David Promies (Internet representation and programing), Carolyn Steinbeck (design concept) and Andreas Zierhut (photography).

OSB is a project connected with international contexts and spaces. Further solo presentations in 2005 include: Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld (February 20 – May 8), United Nations and Goethe Institut, New York (November 2005). In addition to these presentations, from July 2005 OSB will be presented in the countries that inspired it and where its material was gathered.

A publication, a collaboration between Lukas Einsele and Carolyn Steinbeck, is planned for release in April 2005 and includes texts by Sherko Fatah, Fabrizio Gallanti, Jonathan Kaplan, Thomas Küchenmeister, Frank Masche, Pedro Rosa Mendes, Bertrand Ogilvie and Ralf Syring.