Helicopter XVI (On the Balcony)

"Franz Ackermann is interested in finding a method to deal with this bewitched relationship between space and society. And thus he is much more than just a painter. He is a cosmopolitain who as scout, map-reader, collector, interpreter and constructor searches out and collects diverse text, which he as a travelling observer interprets like a satellite flying close to the ground, gathering information in order to understand the world. With his eyes faithful to his homeland and its geographical relationship clearly in his mind he creates for himself and for us perspectives that could never have been seen in satellite pictures or maps. Ackermann is searching for new logical associations between spatial things, the words that we use to refer to these objects, and the mental images that we create of them" (G. Jansen, "Comparative Imagology", in Franz Ackermann: Seasons in the Sun, exh. cat., Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, November-December 2002, p. 19).