"Palermo"

C-print

rückseitig signiert, datiert und betitelt

At first glance, all the people in the picture seem to be next to each other by chance. The picture presents itself like a random snapshot of a street scene whose only reason for the motif was the mystical lighting, which makes the people in the picture appear as if on a stage. On closer inspection, however, everything is concentrated on one person, namely that man with the newspaper slightly to the left of center. The two men in the background communicate with each other - pay attention to the hand of the man with the leather jacket. The cyclist seems to overhear something as he passes, and there is another person watching the whole scene. What are these two up to? Do they know that the security guard in the shadow of the building is watching them? What role do we take as spectators?
At the time of the picture's creation, Stephan Reusse was working on stories that sought their starting point in scenes like this. They are key images for a narrative that should arise in the imagination of the viewer. Usually it is small details that form the initial for the story - as in the present picture the almost imperceptible communication of the two men in the background. The scene, however, was not one found by chance; everything was precisely organized, all the people and places arranged on the spot and shot with a 4x5-inch view camera. The important thing was the attempt to interact with the people on the spot, who were supposed to come together to tell a story - similar to Reusse's group of works of the Collaborations.
(Christoph Fuchs, 2022)