Jerry Frantz

* 1955 in Esch-sur-Alzette (L)

Jerry Frantz, born in 1955 in Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg, studied graphic design from 1976 to 1981 at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Art Bruxelles and the École Supérieure des Arts Appliqués in Paris. He lives and works in Pratz in Luxembourg.

With regard to his understanding of art, he acknowledges that in order to create art, it is important to be familiar with art history; but art in the here and now only functions in the time when it is created. So it is not surprising that in his work, Jerry Frantz doesn’t give precedence to any particular medium. He works in equal measure with video, photography, installations and performance. The viewer should be integrated directly into his art and often becomes engaged in role- play that surprises, shocks and stimulates reflection. In response to the terrorist attacks in Luxembourg during 1985-86, which were known as the bomb-planter affair, and through the coming to terms with them in the early 2000s, Jerry Frantz began to focus more intensely on the concepts of the nation and nationalism.

One of his works at the IKOB is the message of the République Libre de Clairefontaine created in 2008. In his solo exhibition Post-Incunables at the Centre d’Art – Ville de Dudelange in 2009, he returned briefly to printed graphics and created a series of erotic woodcuts that analyse the visual language of the mass media. He resumed the approach of investigating national pride in the mirror of media reception in 2010 when he created the photo montage Heilige Goldjungfrau rette unsere Wirtschaft und bewahre uns vor der Armut (“Holy Virgin of Gold, save our economy and preserve us from poverty”). It shows the Luxembourgian national symbol of the Gëlle Fra holding a life preserver instead of her customary attribute of the laurel wreath. In the double exhibition with Sali Muller at the IKOB, however, he focuses on the role of the individual who adapts to the dictates of social conditions or detaches himself from them – with the second alternative most often turning him into an outsider, eccentric and maverick.

République Libre de Clairefontaine, 2008

Trials and Errors I: Atelier subversif, 2017

Trials and Errors I: Atelier subversif, 2017

Trials and Errors I: Atelier subversif, 2017