»Conquering Mountains« – A Fiction about Childhood and Imagination

»I know that man’s ideas are realities«

(J. W. Goethe)

When we are children, we can see the most unique worlds in mundane, sometimes hideous things.

In the game, the pond becomes an unknown sea, as Richard Jefferies described in »Bevis, the story of a boy«, or the rubble pile of a demolition site evolves into a high mountain range.

The last one is my story. What if, as an adult, take one step back, and think about you as a kid. What if these rubble heaps were mountains, high mountains? Think of the stories of adventurers and explorers you read as a child. What if you reactivate the child in yourself and take this imaginary trip to the mountains and climb?

Equipped with these thoughts, the journey started. The camera’s eye no longer shows the rubble; it presents the mountains, ascents and peaks. Combined with found imagery of climbers and alpinists, the story evolves. The pairs of images form a fictional adventure. It is a time travel back to childhood, its readings and stories, and the rediscovery of imagination. To quote German author Michael Ende: »Mehr Fantasie wagen«.

Artistically it is an extension of the work with archival material. It is also a play and investigation with and about scale, size and decontextualisation.

Marcel Rauschkolb is a photographer and art director from Griesheim, Germany. He works with photography, film and audio-visual media, both in artistic and commissioned work. Starting with a documentary approach in the past, his way of working expanded in the last two years in the direction of rephotography, collage and photographic objects.