"Hans-Jürgen Hafner was the curator and the first person to give me a lot of space. He just let me get on with it. They were brave in Düsseldorf."

It is not the case that Tim Berresheim's art is immediately accessible. Rather, it appears enigmatically complex, extremely diverse in its form of expression and full of hidden references and symbols. According to his own statement, Tim Berresheim deliberately refuses to make his work easy to read. When you meet the giant Berresheim at his first major retrospective at the NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf, a crowd immediately forms around the artist. Because when Berresheim breaks down the conceptual development processes of his contemporary computer-aided art and explains his approach and intentions, he is met with curiosity and amazement. We also had questions: about his unusual art and working methods, about his studies at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and about the places where he feels most at home in the city.

Your exhibition at the NRW-Forum Düsseldorf is called "New Old World". Could you please explain the title?
The title refers to my assumption that we are currently in the process of opening up a new world, namely that of digital space. Using digital space sensibly, appropriating it, is one of the great tasks of the present. Nevertheless, this is an old problem that has always existed. Whenever a new technology sees the light of day, we are faced with the same challenges: What is useful for us humans, what is less useful? My work can be seen as an attempt to answer these questions in the spirit of art.

You also call the works you show artistic contemporary archaeology. What is the archaeological aspect?
The archaeological part of my work is the unearthing of non-obvious phenomena. With computer technology, we are dealing with a very complex world, and wherever I dig, I come across different knowledge. In my opinion, the world is changing and it is worth digging today to make things that are hidden visible.

Can you explain that in more detail? What will visitors find in your exhibition?
Firstly, there are finds from the Vogelherd, a cave (near Niederstotzingen in the Lone Valley, an important site from the Upper Paleolithic/editor's note) where people left artifacts and tools 40,000 years ago. And then there are other tools, my pictures. They are thinking tools, so to speak, brought to light by a cognitive tool, the computer. Tools always have to be thought about, they don't fall from the sky. The narrative space that I open up here shows the hand axe as the first tool on one side. It then took another 19,000 years for humans to emerge from the cave and start farming. In other words, this first tool was followed by others. This is also the case in my work. After all, we have to constantly rethink tools for communication or tools for creating images. This exhibition shows my reflections on this - in pictures from the last 25 years.

You say your computer is a buddy at eye level who does your work for you. What does it do for you?
Rather stupid and silly things. I don't need it to create images, but to process endless amounts of data. I scanned seven caves for the exhibition, that was billions of data records. You can't map that as a human being.

You are self-taught, also when it comes to technology. What sparked your fascination for the medium?
I was seven or eight years old and the computer already seemed like a kind of savior to me back then. I was born in 1975 in the flat countryside. Back then, computers were often thought of in dystopian terms. We had the Pershings around the corner, we had the Cold War, there were movies like "War Games". I was never interested in the computer as a networking tool. The computer as a working tool and output medium that alone can transform or visualize infinite amounts of data - I found that exciting! The computer gives me the illusion of control. That's what it's all about.

You studied art in Braunschweig and Düsseldorf. How was your affinity with computers received at the art academy?
I'm interested in the emotional setting of the digital. How does it feel? And it felt warm and real to me right from the start. At the art academy, I realized that most people perceive the computer as deficient and inauthentic. There is no handwriting, the author disappears behind it. I felt quite differently. In my eyes, it's not a deficit, but speaks for the quality of art; if it's artificial, that's good. The backlash was a painting boom in 2007. And today, almost 20 years later, some artists are still a little suspicious of digital art.

Do you get that from art critics?
Not from art critics. There isn't just one "digital artist", there are hundreds of different activities using hundreds of different tools. I use the computer this way, others use it differently. The term "digital artist" doesn't apply, it doesn't go far enough. I see myself as a contemporary artist.

You studied under Albert Oehlen at the Düsseldorf Art Academy at the end of the 90s. What was your most important lesson there?
I actually only spent a week at the art academy. (Laughs) That didn't work out for me at all. But Albert Oehlen invited me to Cologne, to his studio, which was an incisive experience. His lesson was, in simple terms: concentration and courage. He was a very focused, very courageous person. I knew punks, I knew skinheads, my parents were middle-class. Albert introduced me to an alternative way of life. For me, it was one that worked.

What experiences have you had in the Düsseldorf art scene?
In 2014, I had the exhibition "Auge und Welt" in Düsseldorf at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen. Hans-Jürgen Hafner was the curator and the first person to give me a lot of space. He just let me do it. They were brave in Düsseldorf.

What else do you associate with Düsseldorf?
I went to a lot of punk concerts on Kiefernstraße, for example at AK 47. And I bought my first Doc Martens at Pick Up in the old town.

What do you do when you come to Düsseldorf?
I love eating out in Düsseldorf. I love going shopping. I like looking at art here. The city is well proportioned. I don't have to go far to experience something. I think that's nice.

Where can people meet you?
At Bouillabaisse on Neustraße, for example. You won't find a place like that anywhere else. But I also like Bar Olio and Brasserie Hülsmann in Oberkassel.

timberresheim.de

Save the date
The "New Old World" exhibition at the NRW-Forum runs until May 26, 2024.

Tip
Tim Berresheim is represented at the Beck & Eggeling Gallery in the group exhibition "Der Blumenstrauß. The ephemeral splendor. Photography from the Beginnings to Today" until June 29, 2024.

Tim Berresheim has been represented in the fiftyfifty gallery since May 15, 2024. The artist is supporting the homeless charity with his own charity exhibition and edition: 15 photographic works, originals and a multiple in three colors.

Interview: Ilona Marx
Photos: Markus Luigs
Exhibition photos "New Old World": NRW-Forum