Marcel Odenbach, Artist in distribution, Germany, 1953

Marcel Odenbach was born 1953 in Cologne, Germany where he currently still lives and works. He studied art history, architecture and semiotics at the Technische Hochschule Aachen from 1974-1979. His extensive oeuvre since the late 1970s consists of videos and (video) installations, performances and large-scale drawings. In the 1970s, he formed the producer group ATV together with fellow artists Ulrike Rosenbach and Klaus vom Bruch.
On a formal level collage-like compositions inform the visual and acoustic strategy of many of Odenbach's video works, whether he arranges three different split-screen sequences on a horizontal line like in a tryptich, uses cross-fadings or juxtaposes still photographs and moving images. Other characteristics of Odenbach's video works are the combination of
self-produced images with found footage material as well as the mixture of high cultural elements – e.g. lieder of Schubert or concerts of Bach – with material from pop culture, such as radio hits or sequences of Hollywood movies. The embracing theme of Odenbach's works is the construction of identity. An early phase of his oeuvre highlights the critical analysis and display of the relationship between artist and audience. In later works this focus shifts towards a more general exploration of the self in relation to historical and cultural representation.