Rainer Maria Wehner's "Sacra Conversazione" is an evocatively dualistic work. On the one hand it is technically precise, based on its structure-dominated character, the preeminence of right angles, the materials and techniques used and the scientific concept the use of x-rays suggests. On the other hand it is enigmatic by transforming the technical aspects, using the idea of ceremonious, as the works title already suggests, and the as of yet inexplicable function of the medical photographs. If we add to this Wehner's description of the work as a "triptychonal altarpiece", the enigmatic expands into the realm of the ritualistic, further complication the works interpretation.
"Sacra Conversazione", made during a stay in New York 2000 consists a scaffold-like support structure of square steel pipes, carrying crosswise a right angled frame. To both sides are attached smaller wing shaped square frames, the left one fitting exactly into the angle between the pedestal and the central frame, while for the right one, a little framework cube creates a certain distance to the mainframe. The right-hand cube finds its equivalent in a larger one, extending from the left to the center and, like all frames, is double layered. Both cubes have yellow acrylic glass sheets inserted front and back. The central frame consists of a digitally processed blown up x-ray depicting the frontal view of a child's thorax. It is flanked by the life sized head and shoulder portrait of an adult person in a square frame on each side. Six pairs of vertical fluorescent tubes run along the back of the construct. The largest two pairs, emphasizing the center, are flanked by two shorter ones corresponding to the two shorter ones behind the square wings. The cool white light of the tubes, fed by visible wiring, lights up the x-rays as on a hospital screen conferring on the already unobtrusive yellow an air of passivity.
The altar association, enhanced by the work's title, conveys some urgency to the work's interpretation. Yet before answering this, a closer look at the formal composition of "Sacra Conversazione" should be taken. The geometric-constructive components need no further explanation. The strong outline reminds of Mondrian, even where it does not adhere to strict symmetry; the steel frame with its nakedly metallic colors projects technical precision without striving for a perfection that would deny craftsmanship. The array of vertical cool white fluorescent tubes recalls Dan Flavin's early work and some minimal light art. The x-rays point into the opposite direction of body related art and -one can assume- the securing of the roots of individual history. By combining the elements of the technical object, the iconic and the ostentatious without denying its indebtedness to varying trends, the work takes on the character of a most impressive multi media installation.
The "historic" and simultaneously ironic title evokes post modern associations. Sacra Conversazione in Italian art history refers to a certain type altar piece reaching back to the fourteenth century, flowering during the Renaissance and to be found up to the eighteenth century. It brings to mind the masters Domenico Veneziano, Giovanni Bellini, Andrea Mantegna, Piero della Francesca, Pietro Perugino, Raffael, Andrea del Sarto and Tizian in whose works the balance of structure and color is primarily determined by content. The theme is always the assembly of saints gathered around the centrally enthroned Mary with the child. The conversation proceeds less by casual, chatty talk than by calm, composed communication. Removed to an ideal location the participants of the classical assembly demonstrate spiritual agreement beyond any profane time, superior any challenge or temptation.
Whenever Rainer Maria Wehner uses the term "Sacra Conversazione" for his work, a term steeped in tradition, and furthermore speaks of a triptychonal altar-piece, it is obviously not to demonstrate religious faith and belief. That the altar has no typical mensa (table) is less important, for many historical altars in museums are without the supporting structure, as indispensable, though, it might be in an ecclesiastical context. More important is to note that Wehner's work expresses inherent disagreement and irreconcilability structurally. The proportional difference alone between the x-rays of the child's thorax and the adult busts implies tension instead of harmony. One is reminded of the discrepancies in size according to "perspective of importance" in medieval paintings, including the early history of "Sacra Conversazione", in which Mary and the infant Jesus are intentionally portrayed larger than the assisting saints. Wehner's centerpiece does not portray an integral figure, but a monstrously enlarged segment of a body that marginalizes the two busts placed below and according to rank. They alone, though, are poised for conversation: yet their discourse remains mute, their enlightenment differs from each other, as the two yellow, screened boxes symbolically might suggest. The part they play in any case, is obviously subordinate to that of the large central thorax, significantly depicted without head. If the two persons' attention converges, it must be related to what centerpiece so forcefully expresses.
In addition to the information gleaned from the work's overall structure and complement by the analysis of its figurative components comes the diagnosis a medical doctor only could provide: the central x-ray documents the extremely dangerous state of the child's health. And here the artist's surprising comment precludes further speculation: "A specialist will recognize that the x-ray is that of a young child with pneumonia. Indeed in those days when the people had to fight for their naked survival" - Wehner refers the year 1950 - "it was a common form of birthcontrol to put the child in his cot out on the balcony on a cold fall evening and pneumonia would do the rest. You probably have already guessed," Wehner completes in his letter, "that it is my personal history, I am dealing here with."
To Wehner's disclosure one can react with unease if not horror. The act of self-liberation exposes part of the artist's life story, dealing with life and death to the eyes of strangers, while the role of the parents -for only they can be meant by the two portraits- are being revealed as both sinister and potentially destructive. The true course of history has proven that life, for whatever reason, did win. But whatever remains of memory suffices to compose a picture of bitter contrast to a Sacra Conversazione. The violation of common discretion would appear as extreme were the artist incapable to give that what mentally is nearly impossible to assimilate, an aesthetically viable expression. Wehner does not treat the macabre casually, but creates a both formally striking and strangely reticent setting for it in which to unfold its partly eloquent, partly enigmatic effect. To suggest that with Sacra Conversazione Wehner intended to build an altar to himself is to miss the deeply inherent irony of the work. Its cult-evocative charisma which has much in common with the expressive quality of a triptych -the triptych as a formula of the pathetic- is more camouflage than para-religious persuasion.
As huge as the distance may appear between Wehner's early work with alienated script and new work like Sacra Conversazione: they do have in common a dialectic of disguise and revelation, which is a dialectic of a free invention and the trust in the power of semantics. The esthetic ingenuity has remained an important component in Wehner's work, but the focus on content has grown stronger over the years and has been reinforced by working on the Berlin Holocaust Memorial and the related Menetekel-project. The technical possibilities have been extended and new materials and new forms of presentation explored. A change can be observed in the use of transparencies: while formerly pencil drawings on transparent paper or translucent foil were used - for instance in the drawings hung from steel frames of the Menetekel project of 1996 -followed by routings in acrylic glass combined with scintigrams for example with "...and look at the white wall..." of 1997- Wehner's interest increasingly turned to x-ray photographs.
To x-rays he had made of his own body, bone scans, encephalograms, selected material of other people was added, Wehner writes in a letter. "I started this method with my exhibition at Kunstraum in Berlin (1997). I combined a projected script with two x-rays of my intestines to create a situation that reminiscent of prophecies inferred from intestines of sacrificed animals. These photographs proved to be powerfully suggestive and of great depth, astonishing even physicians. Pictures of bone scintigrams, for instance, revealed subtly drawn lines comparable to soft crayon drawings".
It is the tension between aesthetic provocation appeal and significant content, which makes Sacra Conversazione outstanding. The use of the x-ray from the artist's early medical childhood record, preserved probably only by chance, stresses the work's highly subjective aspect. And though it is flanked by two anonymous x-ray portraits, they do not violate the works emphasis on content, since the true identity of the center portrayal also remains visually unfathomable. On the other hand, even without knowing the autobiographical references and connections disclosed verbally by the artist, the existential power of the installation is strong enough to take it beyond the limitations of the simply artful.
Translated from the German
by Josephine Claire,
Geneva, New York