Martin Honert VSG-Gruppe, 2015-2016

VSG-Gruppe is an abbreviation for Versehrten-Sport-Gemeinschaft (and can be translated literally as “sports group of the maimed”). Martin Honert has extracted six life-size figures seated on wooden bleachers from a poignant black and white photograph dating from 1956. The men, most of whom bear some kind of amputation, are depicted relaxing at an outdoor bathing site. Given the date of the photograph, their injuries are most likely war-related. Hollow-cast from transparent polyurethane to which sand has been added, Honert thinly glazes and paints the surface to further heighten the appearance of a vintage photograph with its faded and grainy resolution. VSG-Gruppe vividly recalls daily life in German post-war society in which the wounds of World War II remained visible.