Ich will daß Du mir glaubst Catalogue of the 9. Trienale Fellbach     26.06.2004 - 26.09.2004	Deutscher Text Martin Liebscher Martin Liebscher's interest and passion are particularly for moving things.As a young man he worked as a film projection technician.The job entailschanging rolls of film and one sees the strips of celluloid moving past,with thousands and thousands of miniature photos on them, which when theyflow create the illusion of a moving picture.The artist Martin Liebscher,whose trade and medium is photography, loves everything which is new; fromthe mobile phone to the camera, from electronic toys to notebooks: whereothers are just buying their first computer program, he has alreadyinstalled his third update.This is all thanks to his playful love oftrying things out.But above all he uses the electric and technical gadgetsand equipment as work material and tools which he uses to put his ideas intopicture form. Martin Liebscher also has the wonderful gift of harmonisingwork with convenience.This is most obvious in the case of his UFO photos,where we see how passionately he loves being creative with his hands.Whilestudying at the art academy, Liebscher began on a series of plastic spaceships which he built from used disposable cameras and sprayed with greypaint.They could easily serve as models for films such as "Star Wars" or"Star Trek"."He photographs these alien shapes with the aid of a pole andthin rope in front of different landscapes in the USA.The result isremarkable: flying objects seem to come in to land over the skyscrapers ofNew York or the neon signs of Los Angeles and Las Vegas, hover mysteriouslyover desert landscapes, deep gorges and monotonous country roads or toreturn to Roswell, the town in which a flying saucer was said to havecrashed at the end of the 1940s.".He framed the photographs in differentformats in cheap plastic frames and hung them on the wall in the manner ofPetersburg hanging.In a gallery presentation in 1998 one of the romanticUFO pictures, blown up very large, served as wallpaper.In this way hecreated the atmosphere of a rather ludicrous private collection wheresomeone had collected evidence of the existence of unknown flying objects.Liebscher's UFO photos are remarkable.Nobody before him has succeeded intaking such shots with such clarity.A cold shiver can run down our spinewhen we look at them: so they are here!Martin Liebscher's work ischaracterised by turning reality on its head, by letting things in afamiliar form suddenly appear completely alien - but always with a nod and awink, so that we can smile too.The UFO photos very soon turn out to befakes.The string supporting the plastic space ships in the pictures isjust too obvious.Our shock and amazement die away as quickly as they came.Liebscher thought up and carried out the idea of the photo series during along time of scholarship in Los Angeles. Many friends visited him while hewas on the west coast, and he often went on expeditions with them, exploringthe country, the cities and nature.Plastic UFO, string and pole werealways with him in his luggage.If you went on a trip with MartinLiebscher, you not only had the pleasure of travelling along in hisspace-ship-like car, which had the logical name "Ford Galaxy", but you alsohad to help him occasionally by holding his space ship.One can have anumber of different thoughts about the message behind the photos.But weshould always bear one thing in mind: "The world will not come to an endbecause of its lack of miracles, but from our refusal to be amazed at them."(J.B.S. Haldane)." Natalie de Ligt 2004 1 Janneke de Vries. Frankfurter Rundschau, 17. Juni 1998 2 Janneke de Vries. Frankfurter Rundschau, 17. Juni 1998	Pictures in Catalogue: