CHRISTOPH BROICH . Past-ing

Christoph Broich’s project “Past-ing” refers to the past as much as it refers to pasting things back together. By recreating a demolished row of houses with residue of its past existence, Broich expanded his usual process of collaging materials onto sculptures and destroying the original sculpture upon completion. This time around the artist used an already existing sculptural structure, the front doors of an entire street of houses. He made a shell of each door by using residue (such as curtains, fabric, patches of wallpaper, specks of paint, posters and photographs) of the house it once belonged to. He then applied several layers of latex. leaving the usual destruction of the “sculpture” to a demolition company. 

Past-ing is Broich’s interpretation of Remembrance of Things Past. Much like the artist’s usual practice, the project focuses on deterioration. In an attempt to try and restore something that once was, it effectively reverses the natural process of remaining skeleton after skin and flesh have decomposed. 

Accompanying the sculptural installation are four separate installments of the Past-ing series. 

Street-mimicking rows of collages from pictures taken from 10 July 2007 through 10 July 2008, a video projection of more than 3000 pictures documenting the demolition and seasonal chsnges, interior installations and exterior installations with light box sculptures. Like all of Broich's work they show a willful sensitivity to the body and mortality.

Christoph Broich was born in Stadt Blankenberg, Germany. He graduated from The Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium in 1994. The artist has received international acclaim with sculptural installations that manifest the complex and unquiet correlation between life and work, material and concept. His work has been featured in museum and galleries worldwide.