For six years Maximilian Prüfer has been developing his own printing process. Using what he calls “naturantype,” the artist records such phenomena as the beating wings of moths, or the trails of ants and snails and questions their structural processes. Prüfer’s works are highly aesthetic objects and conceptual examinations of the world.

Berlin, January 17, 2017 – “I’m fascinated by movement and patterns, time, space, and antyhing that flies,” explains Maximilian Prüfer. The thirty-year-old has developed a printing technique that makes it possible for him to capture even the most minimal of movements and preserve them in the form of a print. His specially coated paper is so sensitive that it allows the tracks of ants or the beating of a moth’s wings to be seen. Although the process of creating an image seems to be left to chance, Prüfer also provocatively intervenes in the movements, by using traces of scent, bait, and obstructions to pre-determine the direction paths will take.

For Prüfer, the swarm is a structural model, while the printed surface is a seismograph of the most miniscule state of existence. How do living creatures behave in certain situations; how do they organize themselves—and is it possible to perceive regularities in them? In dialogue with nature, Prüfer explores social and philosophical models using the animals as an example. He particularly examines the correlation between culture and evolution and puts his findings in relation to the behavior of man.