In his first monograph publication, a consistently conceived and designed art book, Matthias Aschauer uses the medium of selective perception to sketch an almost incidental portrait of Albania. His starting point is the observation that the Mercedes automobile marque has an unusually high penetration rate within the country, and he uses the cars – as objets trouvés in the best sense of the word – as a design principle for his photographs and a continuous narrative for the book. We are shown a fascinating country that is making the transition to a market economy, with Mercedes cars featured in every photograph, and it becomes clear that the Mercedes star shines brightly as a symbol and promise of a better life not just in Albania. For connoisseurs and enthusiasts alike the book is also an opportunity to see the Mercedes models and series of the past 40 years, meticulously listed in the captions, in a highly concentrated form and in incongruous everyday situations. In his essay David Staretz, Austria’s consummate author on all car-related matters both intellectual and material, steers a steady course into the depths of the Mercedes legend.weiterlesen