Peter Piller Archive

Peter Piller collects images that are familiar to everyone. He finds them in the filing cabinets of regional newspapers or in the archives of a company that sells aerial photos of houses. Freed of their original purpose they initially seem to be devoid of meaning. When the artist rearranges them and classifies them in series they at first reveal the clichés of commercial photography, but then also bring new meanings and unusual relationships to light. What appeared to be a detail, somewhere on the edge of a photo, could be the start of a narrative. A caption like 'bone of contention' or 'the house of the culprit' draws together dozens of shots in a mysterious way.

Alongside his work drawn from photo archives, the exhibition at Witte de With presents a series of 'office drawings' under the title Vorzuege der Abschichtslosigkeit and a report on a work in progress in the Municipality of Hellendoorn-Nijverdal, the Netherlands. See for more information also the website www.peterpiller.de.

Peter Piller was born in Fritzlar (G) in 1968. He studied German language and literature and trained as a visual artist. His archives to date have been published in eight volumes by Revolver Verlag (Frankfurt am Main), which also published the series of aerial photos "Von Erde schoener". Piller was awarded the Ars Viva Prize 2004 and received the Rubens Prize from the City of Siegen.

The first part of a series of smaller publications with the title "Archiv Peter Piller - Materialien (A) Dauerhaftigkeit / Duurzaamheid" (ISBN: 90-73362-66-0) is being published to coincide with this exhibition.

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Peter Piller Archive