Daniel Joseph Martinez
Daniel Joseph Martinez'snew photographic installation, I am Ulrike Meinhof or (someone once told me time is a flat circle) represents a mode of historic radicalism interpreted through images where, as a process historicizing the present, the imaginary, symbolic, and real become interwoven through a process of confrontation. Martinez’s photographs of the Inner German border of West Berlin, taken during his 2016 American Academy residency in Berlin, re-map the psychogeography of that time, and place, through the usage of iconic images of Ulrike Meinhof. These images, representing her life in various stages, include a classically styled portrait of her as a young girl; a formal photograph in the professional stage of her life; and the coroner photograph of her dead body. Ulrike Marie Meinhof (1934–1976) was a German left-wing militant who co-founded, with Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin, the Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion, or RAF) in 1970 after previously working as a journalist for the left-wing magazine konkret. In 1972, she was arrested and charged with numerous murders as well as the formation of a criminal association. Before the trial concluded in 1976, Meinhof was found hanged in her prison cell. It is worth noting that in the year leading up to her arrest, Germany was in chaos; Berlin was the first properly televised world crisis. I am Ulrike Meinhof or (someone once told me time is a flat circle) marks the 40th anniversary of the RAF’s 1977 armed struggle operations, known as “German Autumn”, which began with the abduction of industrialist and ex-Nazi party member Hanns-Martin Schleyer.