The core of this research is an artistic practice based on publishing and producing multiples. The publication - in the broadest sense of the word - serves as an experimental vehicle for questioning the preconditions and uniqueness of the multiple - works that only have a multiple existence. Formal exploration is crucial here, ranging from self-publication, publication as a visual essay, publication as a report, as an autonomous work, as a trigger, as an archive and as a collection. The focus here is on a sequence of editions that do not succeed in becoming an edition, in which the original is lacking, but which are nevertheless unique, in other words: faux-multiples.
Methodologically, the research departs from the artistic practice in which the given of the faux-multiple is explored through publications, videos and installations. In addition, a reflective framework will be developed in which the multiple as a form, but also as an idea, will be subjected to art-philosophical and art-historical research. Which factors influence the legitimacy of the print run? In what way is uniqueness by definition part of every edition, even for the most meticulous, indistinguishable editions? What if a multiple is no longer a real multiple, is not an reproduction but only exists as an reproduced image? And what if the image transforms, and manifests (materializes) within a three-dimensional context, and in its unique, sculptural form actually becomes the reproduction of the idea that came about as a multiple?
