A World of His Own
Mark Hogancamp and the miniature town of Marwencol
By Leslie Stonebraker
http://www.nypress.com/article-21740-a-world-of-his-own.html (http://www.nypress.com/article-21740-a-world-of-his-own.html)
Mark Hogancamp may not consider himself an artist, but he certainly performs for the world in the lens of documentary filmmaker Jeff Malmberg. Populated with wonderful little vignettes brimming with exquisitely constructed play, Marwencol (currently playing after an extension at IFC Center) disappoints only when we find the edges of Hogancamp's imagined world.
Marwencol opens by pairing of Hogancamp's attack as he left a bar in hometown Kingston in April of 2000 (which left him comatose and psychologically damaged) with his infinitesimally detailed fictional WWII era town of Marwencol, Belgium, populated by the doll alter egos of his friends and family. The film provides a much-needed context for Hogancamp's photographs currently on view at Esopus Space (through Oct. 28). Context that Hogancamp cannot achieve for himself. After the attack, Hogancamp lost not only his fine motor skills, but his memories. "My memories that I do get, they come back in stills. Just a single shot, but no context."