Thomas Demand, Five Drafts (Simulator)

Thomas Demand takes photographs, but photography is not his medium. The camera is not what has made him famous. His medium is, instead, the lifesize model, a scene built of cardboard, glue and paper that he then photographs as if it were real. Demand is to model-making what Cindy Sherman is to make-up: both construct illusions authenticated, as it were, by documentary photographs. But where Sherman makes herself up, Thomas Demand remakes the world – and so superbly that, for a moment, it seems you’re looking at life. – Laura Cumming, The Guardian, 11 June 2006

Thomas Demand is a renowned German artist whose unique practice integrates sculpture and photography, creating large-scale, illusionistic photographs that are steeped in layers of interpretation and artifice. Initially trained as a sculptor, Demand began his artistic journey crafting intricate models from paper, which he then captured photographically. Over time, his method evolved such that the models themselves became transient, constructed solely for the purpose of photographing and then deliberately destroyed, leaving the photos as the sole enduring artworks. Demand’s artworks are meticulously staged recreations of scenes often sourced from media images that depict politically or historically significant locations. For instance, he has reconstructed environments like the bunker where an assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler was made, transforming them into life-size models made entirely from paper and cardboard. These models, while appearing ordinary at first glance, hold deep historical and political resonances. After photographing these painstakingly crafted scenes, Demand destroys the physical model, ensuring that the photograph serves as the final, enigmatic artifact of his artistic intervention. The resulting artwork challenges the viewer’s perception of reality, blurring the lines between what is real and what is fabricated. Demand’s art questions the authenticity of photographic representation and explores themes of memory and history, often depicting spaces that suggest human presence or recent activity yet remain hauntingly devoid of people. The artist has been the subject of solo exhibitions at major institutions including Fondazione Prada, Venice; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Serpentine Gallery, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk. He represented Germany at the 26th São Paulo Biennale in Brazil in 2004. Thomas Demand was born in Munich, Germany in 1964.

Thomas Demand, Five Drafts (Simulator)