With the group of works “Le bateau ivre”, which Martin Essl photographed in Paris between 2019 and 2023 and published in a publication of the same name by Kehrer in 2023, the artist refers to the poem by Arthur Rimbaud. It was written in 1871 by the then 17-year-old Rimbaud, who poetically describes life as a dramatic voyage. In a photo essay that is structured like a play in five acts, the images oscillate between realism and abstraction. Martin Essl draws the contours of the city of Paris in transition and composes an abstract yet contemporary map of Paris.
As different as the positions of Martin Essl and Anaïs Horn may appear, they are linked not least by a similarity of means. Both artists embark on a visual and poetic search for traces in private and public, intellectual and concrete spaces. Martin Essl finds enigmas in the urban scenes he visits, while Anaïs Horn explores them in her private cosmos.