Martin Bruno Schmid: Almost Nothing

Martin Bruno Schmid’s tools comprise a drill, a saw, sharpened pencils, and sandpaper; material is extracted, (almost) never applied. In delicate works on paper, walls and ceilings, he perforates, drills, and saws until the materials (almost) rupture. Whether plasterboard or paper, his attention is not focused on its destruction; rather he explores the structure, prerequisites, and possibilities of the material.

Schmid applies the same artistic principle of exploration to buildings too: On a static level, for example, by sawing load-bearing concrete columns vertically to their (precisely calculated) limits of stability – such as the work Bohrschnitt, prekär (Drill Cut, Precarious) at an institute of Tübingen University (2015–2020). But also on an aesthetic – albeit no less spectacular – level, by the slight rotation of a sawn-out circle in a raw concrete wall in the work Tondo at the Hochschule Furtwangen (in Villingen- Schwenningen, 2011). While the sawn columns prompt a feeling of latent uncertainty, the moving concrete wall visually activates the entire foyer.

One work that can barely be surpassed in its reduction is the design Goldgrund (Fond) (Gold ground [Fond]) for the Humboldt Forum in Berlin, where a total of sixty-four hand-made 16-mm wall plugs in pure gold were to be inserted into the walls of the reconstructed Berlin Palace. In their sparse distribution around the space, only their round openings and their discreet gold shimmer would have pointed to their presence and value. The design won first prize, but the work itself was not realized; its effect was revealed, however – in a modified form – under the title Wandstück (Fond) (Wall piece [Fond]) in the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, among other places, where two shimmering golden drill holes alluded to an apparently absent picture, which only upon further investigation turned out to be the actual artwork – the wall as a chamber of treasures.

The publication presents the work of Martin Bruno Schmid in numerous illustrations and a text by Dorit Schäfer. An interview conducted by Hubert Schwarz with the artist concludes the book, demonstrating how Schmid’s works make visible that which we otherwise take for granted, is ancillary or inconsequential. A play with perception that tests our world of apparent certitude so radically and poetically – using almost nothing.


Contents
8 Energy and mass, or almost nothing: the work of Martin Bruno Schmid, Dorit Schäfer
21 Drilling pieces
31 Drill intercept, precarious
41 Drilled drawings
51 Pencil tip in paper
61 Formwork holes (+34)
71 Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss / Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
81 Quietspeaker
91 Acoustic ceiling, hand-drilled
101 Drill outs
111 Pencil tip in paper II
121 St. Fidelis
131 Cracks /Cuts
141 Facepeelings
151 Tondo
162 Eight questions for Martin Bruno Schmid, Hubert Schwarz
173 Biography