BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the graves of Mozart and Salieri, Vienna, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA are Boris Eldagsen and Natascha Stellmach.
What advice would the (in)famous Dead offer us today?
Employing the technique of frottage, and informed by memento mori and society’s obsession with celebrity, BORIS+NATASCHA explore a contemporary take of the ancient oracle through a message from the (in)famous Dead.
Via stealth, synchronicity, mysticism, research and guerilla action, BORIS+NATASCHA create a “grave rubbery” – an imperfect anagram rubbed from the letters of the name on the tombstone. This frottage becomes both a message from and representation of the infamous deceased person – as well as a reminder to celebrate life, here and now.
Oracle is an ongoing project, since 2009, with over 50 unique works-on-paper.
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Gilbert Bécaud, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Jim Morrison (James Douglas Morrison), Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA, Oracle from the grave of Nico (Christa Päffgen), Berlin, 2018,
frottage on handmade gold paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2021, Oracle from the grave of Albrecht Dürer, Nürnberg, frottage on handmade gold paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Oscar Wilde, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 51 x 76 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Vincent Van Gogh, Auvers-sue-Oise, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2009, Oracle from the grave of Vincenzo Bellini, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Hans Bellmer, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Jean-Paul Sartre & Simone De Beauvoir, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of André Breton, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Maria Callas, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Samuel Beckett, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Jim Morrison (James Douglas Morrison), Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2009, Oracle from the grave of Susan Sontag, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 51 x 76 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Jean-Francois Lyotard, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 51 x 76 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Charles Baudelaire, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 51 x 76 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2011, Oracle from the grave of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Munich, frottage on handmade paper, 51 x 76 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Gustave Eiffel, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2010, Oracle from the grave of Maurice Ravel, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2011, Oracle from the grave of The Red Baron (Manfred von Richthofen), Berlin, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2011, Oracle from the grave of Leni Riefenstahl, Münich, frottage on handmade paper, 51 x 76 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2009, Oracle from the grave of Sarah Bernhardt, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2009, Oracle from the grave of Max Ernst, Paris, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2011, Oracle from the grave of Friedrich Nietzsche, Röcken, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2011, Oracle from the grave of Caspar David Friedrich, Dresden, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
BORIS+NATASCHA, 2011, Oracle from the grave of Klara & Alois Hitler, Leonding, Austria, frottage on handmade paper, 47 x 66 cm, unique piece
The ongoing series includes Oracles by: VAN GOGH | MORRISON | BECKETT | CALLAS | WILDE | FASSBINDER | PIAF | GAINSBOURG | ERNST | SATIE | RIEFENSTAHL | NIETZSCHE | C.D FRIEDRICH | SARTRE / DE BEAUVOIR | MOZART / SALIERI | FEUERBACH | CITROËN | RAVEL | BELLINI | BRETON | GIVENCHY | HEINE | MAN RAY | EIFFEL | STEIN | MERLEAU-PONTY | CHOPIN | SCHIELE | TARKOVSKY | TRUFFAUT | BELLMER | BAUDELAIRE | SONTAG | ÉLUARD | NUREJEV | BÉCAUD | FALCO | TZARA | SCHNITZLER | DEMY | BERNHARDT | NIJINSKY | HITLER’S PARENTS | LYOTARD | E.T.A HOFFMANN | MARCEAU | DÜRER | THE RED BARON | NICO
BORIS + NATASCHA IN ACTION
BORIS + NATASCHA at François Truffaut’s grave, Montmartre cemetery, Paris, about to channel the dead filmmaker, 2010
BORIS + NATASCHA at André Breton’s grave, making Breed Art, Batignolles cemetery, Paris, 2010
BORIS + NATASCHA at Susan Sontag’s grave, making On Angst, Montparnasse cemetery, Paris, 2010
BORIS + NATASCHA at Vaslav Nijinsky’s grave, making Kiss In Vain, Montmartre cemetery, Paris, 2010
BORIS + NATASCHA at Vincent Van Gogh’s grave, making Ache Into, Auvers-sur-Oise cemetery, France, 2010
BORIS + NATASCHA at Egon Schiele’s grave, making Silence, Ober–St Veit cemetery, Vienna, 2010
BORIS + NATASCHA at Casper David Friedrich’s grave, making Sacred Rider, Trinitatis cemetery, Dresden, 2011
INSTALLATION VIEWS
Kunstbiennale Schwabach | Halle 14 Leipzig | MAK Vienna | ACC Galerie Weimar | Espace Culturel Beauvais | KIK ONE Berlin | 1066 Contemporary Arts Festival Hastings UK
Installation view (detail), BORIS+NATASCHA’s Oracle Performance at MAK, Vienna 2011
BORIS + NATASCHA Installation view: Oracle as part of Whatever Happened to God?, Halle 14, Leipzig 2012
SELECTED PRESS
The Art Newspaper | Art Basel Daily: Dead Artists Society – The Last Word
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