Cornelia Sollfrank – Expanded Original

Cornelia Sollfrank

Hatje Cantz, ISBN 978-3775723909, Germany, 2009, English, German
The work of Cornelia Sollfrank is one of the most enlightening attempts to describe the consequences of immateriality in art. She consistently points to the obsolescence of concepts such as “original” and “copyrighted”, developing a full spectrum of perspectives. Even if the core of her work comes out of the (in)famous net-art generation in its different codifications, she has broadly extended her range of gestures and targets, never missing an opportunity to adopt an inspiring, provocative attitude. This book is the result of a residency spent at the Edith-Ruß-Haus für Medienkunst, which finished with a comprehensive exhibition that established her progress as an artist investigating rather scientifically the concept of authenticity in art. Unquestionably her skills in mining “uniqueness” and “originality” are quite remarkable, but more than frontally attacking the established rules that govern the whole art market, she allows contradictions to emerge almost spontaneously. Through appropriation and (sometimes serial) plagiarism Sollfrank is producing a distinctive conflict in every copy. During her residency, for example, she engaged with old paintings and sculptures from the museums in Oldenburg, extending her MuseumShop project to these works, a project that includes a stock photographic agency exploiting other artists’ works. Furthermore she went on developing a working “plagiarism detection software.” And as with her “re-visiting feminist art” series, she never stops to play with social perceptions in different times, with a masterful, conceptual hacking of the support mechanisms of available technologies.