Andreas Seltzer – Der Sendermann / The Transmitter Man

In the winter months of 1972, the first messages from the so-called Sendermann (Transmitter Man) appeared in the Berlin districts of Tempelhof and Schöneberg. By 1978, when the messages ceased to appear, “Der Sendermann” had covered the city centre of West Berlin with a whole series of inscriptions. Back then, the Berlin artist Andreas Seltzer wandered through the city in search of these inscriptions and captured his findings in a series of photographs.
In times in which the uncovering of various secret service surveillance activities has become a recurring topic in the daily news, the warnings of the Sendermann seem like early prophecies.
... The Sendermann’s inscriptions develop an anarchic vitality ...
(K. H. Bohrer, FAZ)
... Seltzer shows the work of a man who warned at an early stage about the invisible control and manipulation of consciousness by transmitters ...
(Dirck Möllmann, MANSON, catalog, Kunsthalle Hamburg)
... Like the drifter in John Carpenter’s “They Live,” the Sendermann saw more than most people could see. It had somehow become clear to him that one is not only being listened to but also manipulated. ...
(Claudia Basrawi, TAZ)
... an act of revolt! ...
(Andrea Hill, Artscribe)