Hans-Jörg Georgi
Hans-Jörg Georgi joined the Goldstein workshop in 2001, bringing with him thousands of drawings depicting airplanes and children. It is in his workshop that he begins the creation of three-dimensional airplanes, which he manufactures using cut-up shoeboxes assembled with glue. A veritable fleet takes shape, resembling a Noah’s Ark, as it gathers airplanes of different models: bumpy and textured, they take on anthropomorphic appearances. Human, animal, and technological realms blend together in this collection. Georgi’s works are notably part of the Treger Saint Silvestre & Antoine de Galbert collections. In 2022, we dedicated his first gallery exhibition, entitled noah’s plane.
Born in Frankfurt in 1949, Hans-Jörg Georgi grew up in one shelter after another. A badly treated poliomyelitis drastically deprived him of the use of his legs. Before joining the Atelier Goldstein (Frankfurt am Main, Germany) in 2001, his works were not preserved, destroyed as he created them. It was Christiane Cuticchio, founder of the Atelier Goldstein, who gave Georgi, at 50 years old, the opportunity to develop his work - from then on preserved, archived and exhibited -, integrating at the same time the society in its own right as an artist. Modest, he laughs when the word is used to describe him.
Inspired by well-known models of planes and helicopters (Boeing, Hawk, etc.), Georgi also distinguishes himself by inventing and manufacturing futuristic aircraft that he calls the “six-story”. Running on solar energy rather than gasoline, they are part of his project of osmosis between man and machine. Taking part in a utopian world, these “six floors” are inhabited by characters imagined and drawn by the artist, and are equipped with dormitories, a hospital, a bowling alley and a discotheque. They are intended to ensure the space travel of humanity in search of its survival far from the Earth. This modern Noah’s Ark was exhibited for the first time in France in 2014, at the Maison Rouge.
Text: François Salmeron
Foreword: Christian Berst
Catalog published to mark the exhibition hans-jörg georgi : noah’s planes, from December 8, 2022 to January 22, 2023.