Georg Raab in „Polyproduzentengalerie“ (poly producer gallery)
Raum K, Karlsruher Region, May 2003
By Eva Weilemann

Yes, everything will be alright. But Georg Raab also makes an issue of the evil, or rather – as we have known for a while – the whole thing also has an axis.
Nevertheless, what will be presented in the Polyproduzentengalerie from Friday, 9th of May onwards by the artist from Cologne, originally from Karlsruhe, is more than arbitrary anti-americanism. And this, despite the fact, that one of the central impulses for “Lücken” (gaps) has been 9/11. Fair enough, one could say, we have heard this a thousand times. Meanwhile everyone knows the scenario: a laudatory that tells about artistic processing of political topics, preferably still visibly affected visitors at the opening exhibition, that for weeks – as a form of protest – have not used the word terror and preferably identifiable potential concentrated pictures that only lead to one conclusion: we could do without. But that the same starting point does not necessarily have to be without understatement is shown by the latest art works by Georg Raab. The subtitle “coincidence is the goal of arbitrary” in fact is meant seriously but can be taken with a pinch of salt. Even when dealing with topics like war, violence and their impact (original statement of the artist) there remains pre-interpreted space, which in case of Georg Raab is programme. The “gaps”, in his works are missing text passages, missing outlines or nearly dissolved surroundings: the series “Attractions” display tourist attractions from travel videos photographed from TV screens, overlapped by text passages. Not just any text passages, but RAF writings, extracts of command declarations, jail circulars, personal declarations of members of the so-called “First Generation” of the RAF, like Baader, Meinhof, Ennslin, Raspe, Meins. In the works of Georg Raab they are exemplary for (any kind of) ideology that is monocausal and does not argue, but create realities without explication - they stand for dubious times in which war is seen as an inevitable evil in the face of unscrupulous terrorism and rogue states. Political headlines with commonplace potential Georg could find endlessly during his research, but also his own way of not settling with them.