An honest interview with the artist
About André Wagner Written by André Wagner
Question 1:
Why did you specialize in your photographic art on landscape, spirituality and time?
As a child, I grew up right on the edge of the forest and spent most of my time building caves and playing in the forest and driving BMX.
Spirituality has interested me less.
When I was 9 years old and was on a set-up period with the Christian children of the church, we children all stood with the parish priest in the church and should all be silent because he told something.
I don't know why, but I got a laughing cramp with my friend, and then the pastor threw us out of the church very angry.
This had a lasting impact on me and I did not want to return to church after this event.
After that, for a long time there was nothing for me about God, religion, spirituality, ...
When I started graffiti sprays as a 13-year-old, it was the salvation for me.
All my energy went into drawing, and I discovered a new perception for myself, and I really enjoyed it.
In 1990, shortly after the opening of the Wall, I lost 3 of my friends in a traffic accident.
A Hermes driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and drove into the family car, and we had all played football together in the evening.
What was funny and mystical was that crows were flying around the family home, and that was exactly when the accident happened.
For me it was a bad time, because 8 weeks before my godfather crashed on the same track with the car.
All I had left was memories and photographs, and when I started photographing, it was my driving force to photograph my friends in a way that kept them in memory.
My motivation was to hold on to the soul, and photography felt like a pause button to me.
Through the death of my friends and then my godfather, I began to study life and life after death, and at the same time I had found an expression in graffiti to heal my world.
My ideas went over. I took refuge in art very early and intensively.
Question 2:
Who is your art for?My art is meant for people with good karma 🙂
For people who love nature and seek a deeper meaning in life.
It's meant for people who don't believe in chance.
When I was in New Zealand in 2006 and hadn't contacted my mum for weeks, I picked up the phone, it didn't even ring, she was already on the other side, and she was about to call me.
In 2001 I sat in my apartment with a model and painted a sketch, which I wanted to implement later in the shooting.
She should be a nurse and houses should burn in the background.
When she left, I got a call from my friend and he said the Twin Towers in Manhattan are burning.
Question 3:
Why do you think everyone should go on a pilgrimage?
In 2014, after photographing the Holi Festival for 14 days, I organized a Holi Festival in the family circle for 50 widows and 50 sadhus at my Indian assistant's house, and there was a lot of vegetarian food and Kirtan music.
In 2004 I was in India for the first time. Sri MayapurTen monks took me to this place in West Bengal.
The trip was anything but comfortable for me.
I slept for 6 weeks without a mattress only on the Ashram floor – directly on the stones without a mosquito tent.
I had to get up 4:30 every morning and go to the temple to the Arati.
This time has shaped me sustainably and positively and until today the memory of this pilgrimage place gives me daily strength.
The ceremonies and the daily processes have left a very strong impression on me.
Since then, I have tried to record the experience in my pictures in order to authentically reproduce a situation in the feeling.
I met people who were very poor and still seemed very happy to me.
I learned that you can just live and think high and that you are always fine if you have confidence.
Question 4:
What emotional moments did you have as a pilgrim in India?
I had heard of the sacred number 108 before my departure from Germany, and I had also heard that this number is also found on the Rosary and the Indian prayer chains.
At that time I had to scrape my last money together to come to India.
I got some movies as a gift and bought myself as many as I could.
The last night before I left, I counted 108 movies, and for me that was like a sign, and I don't believe in coincidence.
When I took my first camera walk in a holy city in India in the morning, I spotted a little boy in the backlight at a dump and photographed him.
Meanwhile, an old man patted me on the shoulders and asked me to take pictures showing spiritual and not material India, with all the dirt and stench.
And days later, this very work was created.
Spiritual Stairs, 2004, Edition 7 + 2AP, hand-signed, Art. No. AW/F 2003/1, 80 x 120 cm, (further sizes available)