MACHT

Who exercises power? How can one person shape the politics of an entire nation? And what do its rulers reveal about a country? For many Germans, the parliamentary elections of 2021 marked a new era. The peaceful transition of power was taken for granted. The narrative of how power is wielded and transferred differs for each country and throughout history. This project visualizes 100 years of global politics through the lens of its protagonists. For all states, portraits of those in power between 1921 and 2021 were selected and then superimposed. The intensity and thus the visibility of each person varies according to the length of their term in office. The result is a series of 199 images that are both irritating and iridescent and serve to reinterpret the classical portrait of a ruler. The 20th century in particular was marked by wars, shifting borders, annexations, system upheavals, changes of rule and the founding of new states. Male dominance as well as imperial and colonial history become immediately apparent. Portraits of countries with long-term autocratic rulers look markedly different than portraits of countries with a multitude of (democratically elected) heads of state.