Interviews with Ulrike Heydenreich
Fascinated by vistas
Part 1
Infinity and silence
Ulrike Heydenreich (1975) lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. She has a fascination for maps and panoramic mountain landscapes, which can assume the most unexpected forms in her work. Her art breathes infinity and silence: there is never a cloud in sight and rarely any people.
But what came first, her fascination for panoramas or for the mountains?
‘It all began really with a fascination for maps. I particularly liked topographic maps showing differences in height.’ This led to her interest in the bird’s eye view of the landscape, ‘as if flying over it for a better orientation. I sometimes climb a high tower to have that overview.’
Panorama Drawing Device
‘The idea for panoramas came when I began to ask myself: where am I right now? What would I see if I turned all the way around myself? I designed the Panorama Drawing Device, just as Mesdag once did in his own way. I took it to various locations and used it to draw what I saw in 360 degrees. I was curious about capturing it on paper.’
All the same, the process did not entirely deliver what she was looking for. ‘I wondered whether I could also create a view for myself. One, that you could step into and experience. Something you normally wouldn’t see.’ What kind of landscape, she wondered, would offer that? ‘That’s what eventually brought me to the mountains.’