Communicating with Michael Schneider
By Georg Kremnitz
Communication is by nature always fragmentary and only partly successful. This holds true for (by and large) conventional sign systems like languages - and we know their communicative shortcomings only too well – and this can be said even more so for open systems such as art. Yet is the fragmentary character not an opportunity of meeting others? Michael Schneider communicates his stories or his view of the world via his works so that we may see and comprehend them as ours. We use his works as far as our experience permits us to use them. We notice that they constantly change, especially when we look at them again after some time.
Schneider isn't „free“ in his communication either, as it belongs to two traditions of art and is therefore prone to overdetermination. He is almost forced into the part of the intermediary or the ferryman. But maybe the overdetermination of our world can bring a glimpse of freedom. The onlookers who know only fragments of both traditions can approach Schneider's works more directly again. They may not see all, the artist wanted to convey, but they may see something else. Maybe something the artist himself (consciously) has not noticed? Do the onlookers really miss out on something or do they approach the picture in their own ways? What about the communicative intention of the artist then? Can it be more than an invitation to interpret the picture?
This is a game of mirrors, full of distortions. Generally, communication always is only partly successful. The onlookers must be ready to take part in this communication, if there is to be a bridge between the two parties, between artist and onlookers. The fragmentary character of communication is not only a lost but also a won opportunity and chance. And a piece of freedom, too.
We should make use of this freedom. Michael Schneider's works of art invite us to do so.
From: slab undeciphered . reconstructions by Michael Schneider, Vienna: edition ps 1998, p. 59
Dr. Georg Kremnitz is linguist and since 1986 Univ.-Prof. at the University of Vienna/Austria, Institute for Romance studies.
English translation by Margit Ozvalda