Thomas Ganter: Man with a plaid blanket and other perspectives on living without a home
The purchase of the painting is taken as an opportunity to address homelessness in Frankfurt. Photographs by Abisag Tüllmann (1935-1996) on homelessness broaden the perspective to include everyday situations. The internal perspective is offered by the project "Living from the Perspective of Homeless People", which was created in cooperation with the Howard-Philipps-Haus for the CityLab on tour 2016.
The well-known Frankfurt photographer Abisag Tüllmann, who among other things accompanied the Frankfurt Häuserkampf and its protagonists with her camera in the 1970s, deals with the topic of homelessness and the "homelessness of man" in Frankfurt at the end of the 1980s. At that time, extensive privatization processes of housing and public spaces had shaped the city. The photographs show the everyday practices of living in public space. Important to the photographer are looking and preserving the individuality and intimacy of those affected. She opposes the everyday humiliations with a humanistic attitude.
The works of a painter and a photographer are extended by another perspective. Formerly homeless men documented with the camera those places that were important to them during their homeless time. The photographs were supplemented by individual descriptions that emerged in conversation with staff members of the Howard-Philipps-Haus. Thus, two views from the outside are complemented by interior views. The people present themselves through words and pictures.
What all three projects have in common is that the artists and project participants built up contact and trust with the homeless people over a long period of time before they painted them, photographed them or had them portray themselves.
The works show three different points of view of dealing with the issue of homelessness. The perspective varies between artistic and documentary positions.
