"Am Abgrund der Bilder" at St. Matthäus-Kirche, Berlin, 23 April – 3 September 2023, Opening 22 April, 7 pm
Michael Müller in conversation with Luisa Heese (Director, Museum im Kulturspeicher) at Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg, Saturday, 28 January, 6.30 pm (in German)
Lecture with Prof. Dr. Anne-Marie Bonnet (University of Bonn) followed by a discussion with Michael Müller at Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg, Friday 27 January, 6.30 pm (in German)
In the year of its 20th anniversary, the Museum im Kulturspeicher has invited Michael Müller to work with the Würzburg Städtische Sammlung.
What was intended as an intervention in the collection spaces grew into an opulent project that has now come to a conclusion with the realisation of two exhibitions.
Both exhibitions deal in different ways with the theme of evil in art and society, in history and the present.
"Die Errettung des Bösen." "The Salvation of Evil." An Exhibition by Michael Müller, at Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg, 26 November 2022 – 19 March 2023, Opening Friday 25 November, 7 pm
Albrecht Becker, Ferdinand Brod, Edison Company, Hanns Heinz Ewers, Simon Fujiwara, Hermann Gradl, Willi Greiner, Hans Josephsohn, Paul Kinsler, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Hedwig Maria Ley, Fabio Mauri, Michael Müller, Gerhard Richter, Emy Roeder, Elsa Sahal, Ferdinand Spiegel, Andy Warhol and Friedrich Watzka.
"Mögliche und unmögliche Bilder" "Possible and Impossible Images", at Museum im Kulturspeicher, Würzburg, 26 November 2022 – 19 March 2023, Opening Friday 25 November, 7 pm
"Thinking Hand" at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, 10 November – 30 December 2022
"Der geschenkte Tag. Kastor & Polydeukes" at Städel Museum, Frankfurt, 14 October 2022 – 23 April 2023
The centrepiece of the exhibition is the eponymous, expansive painting “The Given Day” (2021–2022), which is made up of 24 large-format canvases and measures in total 6 x 65 meters. The piece is based on the Ancient Greek myth of the Dioscuri, the twins Castor and Polydeuces: the inseparable brothers are divided by the death of Castor, a mortal, in a fight. Devastated by sorrow, the immortal Polydeuces pleads with his father Zeus, saying he is willing to give up his own immortality to save his brother. Touched by this love, Zeus grants the two brothers a shared life – a life between the worlds. Henceforth the brothers alternate between a day spent in Hades, the realm of the dead, and a day on Olympus amongst the gods. In the prologue to the exhibition, drawings and a sculpture by Michael Müller introduce the myth – interacting with works from the Städel collection. The Hades (2022) work group, which will be on view in the Garden Halls, sees the artist quite literally taking visitors on a tour of the “underworld”.
By means of painting while also going beyond its boundaries, Müller thus presents a multi-faceted artistic reflection on the meaning of time, mortality, and love that endures outside time. In the process, he weighs up the potential of abstraction and asks the crucial question: Can an abstract artwork tell a story?
"Art Basel Hong Kong 2022" 25 – 29 May 2022 / Galerie du Monde, Booth 1C11
"Taipei Dangdai 2022" 19 – 22 May 2022 / Galerie du Monde, Booth A08
DREI BIOGRAPHISCHE VERSUCHE:
Kapitel 4 "Das gemachte Ich"
at Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong, 17 February – 4 April 2022
In the final chapter Das gemachte Ich [en: Self-Creation], Müller exposes personal and intimate events of his life, to elaborate on the belief that “Life is Flux” (proposed by ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus), the theory of tabula rasa, and his motto of “Do It Yourself" – asserting the notion that human beings, each individual should take charge in constructing one’s self, one’s relationship with the other and the world – through his large-scale installations in a white cube with “a dangerous open bracket”.
Das gemachte Ich provides a survey of Müller’s oeuvre in every medium – drawings, paintings, sculptures, objects and performances, multiples and printed works, revealing the multifaceted creativity, formal inventiveness and wide conceptual range of the artist. Müller challenged the traditional confines of art to embrace a much broader, philosophical and humanistic practice. (Galerie du Monde, February 2022)
DREI BIOGRAPHISCHE VERSUCHE:
Kapitel 2 "Der Wolkenvermesser"
at Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong, 17 November 2021 – 29 January 2022
“How do we make sense of the world?” This is the key question Müller addresses in the second chapter Der Wolkenvermesser [en: The Cloud Surveyor], through the diary of a traveler observing clouds. Delving into specific events and dreams from his journey in the Himalayas, Müller further elaborates on the concepts of feeling and accuracy, the self and the other, and shifting perspectives. (Galerie du Monde, November 2021)
"Art Cologne 2021" 17 – 21 November 2021 / Galerie Thomas Schulte, Booth C013
DREI BIOGRAPHISCHE VERSUCHE:
Kapitel 1 "Gefüge – Gefühl und Genauigkeit"
at Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong, 15 September – 6 November 2021
The exhibition series is like Müller’s personal diary from the past three decades. Through each chapter, Müller unveils his journey of self-discovery, embracing change, and self-creation.
>> more
DEINE KUNST (5): "Mensch, der / Körper, der die, das" at Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, 17 July 2021 – 19 January 2022
"ROHKUNSTBAU 26" curated by Dr. Heike Fuhlbrügge, at Schloss Lieberose (DE), 16 June – 3 October 2021
"Schwierige Bilder" curated by Philipp Bollmann at Hasenheide 13 (Sammlung Wemhöner, 10967 Berlin, DE) 30 April – 1 August 2021
Studio Michael Müller is pleased to announce the solo exhibition Michael Müller "Schwierige Bilder" (Difficult Paintings) on the occasion of this year’s Gallery Weekend Berlin.
Curated by Philipp Bollmann at Hasenheide 13 in an unrenovated 19th-century ballroom in Berlin, the show focuses on Müller’s work as a painter and presents a new series of large-size canvases.
Opening hours: Saturdays and Sundays from 12:00 - 18:00.
"All I Think About Is You" curated by Michael Müller at Galerie Georg Nothelfer in cooperation with Kunstsaele, Berlin, 30 April – 26 June 2021
Mahdad Alizadeh, Dieter Appelt, Michael Buthe, André Butzer, Angela de la Cruz, Annabel Daou, Damien Daufresne, Madeleine Dietz, Paula Doepfner, Habib Farajabadi, Nadine Fecht, Friederike Feldmann, K.O. Götz, Gerhard Hoehme, Channa Horwitz, Rolf Iseli, Travis Jeppesen, Tony Just, KAYA (Kerstin Brätsch & Debo Eilers), Dargelos Kersten, Idris Khan, László Lakner, Philip Loersch, Britta Lumer, Walter Menne, Armando Mesías, Henri Michaux, Jenny Michel, Robert Motherwell, Michael Müller, Bernard Piffaretti, Arnulf Rainer, Renaud Regnery, Karin Sander, Thomas Scheibitz, Emil Schumacher, Richard Serra, K.R.H. Sonderborg, Walter Stöhrer, Fred Thieler
"IN THE END, I AM SOMETHING PRODUCED BY US".
Interview by Tim Lienhard for King Kong Garçon, Issue 5 „Dirty“ (AW20)
"Hong Kong Spotlight by Art Basel" at Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, 27 – 30 November 2020 / Galerie du Monde
"Ästhetisches Urteil und Selbstlosigkeit: sich einer Sache aussetzen mit entleertem Blick und ohne Halt" at Galerie Thomas Schulte Berlin, 17 October – 7 November 2020
After the first part of his solo presentation at Galerie Thomas Schulte this autumn, which opened as part of Gallery Weekend Berlin 2020, Michael Müller approaches his own work as curator in the second iteration of his exhibition.
A second part opens up the possibility of self-correction; two versions create a situation of comparison. Herein aesthetic decisions can be found to be right or wrong and an aesthetic judgment can be made. In the second exhibition nearly all elements of installation will be removed, and in a reduced and concentrated display, Müller will give the paintings their own space and strengthen them in their autonomy. (Galerie Thomas Schulte, October 2020.)
Studio visit: Michael Müller describes his approach to painting and more specifically his take on abstraction, while working on six large paintings for a site-specific installation inside the windows of the gallery's 9-meter-high Corner Space. (August 2020)
"Anton im Bastrock" (Anton in a Bast Skirt) and "Bikini on Mars" at Galerie Thomas Schulte Berlin, 9 September – 9 October 2020
Galerie Thomas Schulte is very pleased to present two parallel exhibitions Anton im Bastrock and Bikini on Mars by Michael Müller, both opening as part of Gallery Weekend Berlin. It will be the first solo presentation by the artist at the gallery following his extensive cycle of “18 Exhibitions” (2013 to 2017). Michael Müller has primarily been known for his drawings and conceptually complex installations and performances. The new exhibitions will be the first to focus on Müller’s painterly oeuvre presenting a number of new series of programmatic painting in which Müller examines the classical approaches, methods and techniques of painting and questions our learned approaches and expectations of painting. … (Press release, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Sept 2020.)
DEINE KUNST (4): "Informal, the / Style, the – The Silence of the Pictures as a Mindless Imposition or the Speechlessness" at Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, 29 May – 20 November 2020
"Listen to a Heart Beat" at Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, 23 May – 11 July 2020
The group exhibition Listen to a heart beat at Galerie Thomas Schulte brings together works by Dieter Appelt, Angela de la Cruz, Paula Doepfner, Rebecca Horn, Alfredo Jaar, Maria Loboda, Michael Müller, Yoko Ono and Francesca Woodman. While the artists use different approaches and mediums, the works on display all share an atmosphere of reclusion, fragility, disorientation, timelessness and a search for sanity—sentiments we are all experiencing at the moment.
23 Sekunden aus dem Sein eines Steins [Engl. 23 seconds from the existence of a stone] (2013) is a film installation. Installed on the floor, a rattling 16mm film projector projects the looped, 23-second film image of a elongated stone onto a small screen set up on the floor. Film as a time-based medium is taken ad absurdum. The stone itself is a solid, resting body without movement; a solitaire that is several million years old. The clattering, flickering technical image, on the other hand—invented to capture and represent movement—appears in this way to be nothing but a mere shaky, fluttering heartbeat compared to the lifetime of a stone. … (Press release, Galerie Thomas Schulte, May 2020.)
"Quintessence" at Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong, 1 May – 20 June 2020
Benefit Auction with Outset. Germany Switzerland at Club Dracula, St. Moritz, 23 January 2020
"SKITS. 13 Exhibitions in 9 Rooms / Third Rehearsal for Nietzsche’s Birthday Party 2313" Published by Verlag für moderne Kunst, Wien / Editor Hendrik Bündge in co-operation with the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Michael Müller
“The volume under consideration, belonging to the two-part publication accompanying Müller’s exhibition at the Kunsthalle, is an invitation to readers to discover this Berlin-based artist’s rich field of reference, room by room – from antiquity right up to the present day, from the religious cult to current gender-related questions.” (Verlag für moderne Kunst)
Texts: Hendrik Bündge, Louisa Elderton, Heike Fuhlbrügge, Johan Holten, Travis Jeppesen, Elena Setzer, Lukas Töpfer
Design: Alexander Hahn
Details: 654 pages, numerous ills. in color and b/w
ISBN: 978-3-903269-56-9
"Das Museum als Arena" Lecture with Michael Müller at Universität Bonn, Universitätshauptgebäude, Hörsaal IX, 11 December 2019, 8 pm
Das Museum als Arena is a series of events and lectures, organized by the Institute for History of Art at the Universität Bonn since 2009. Michael Müller will be speaking about his exhibition cycle „Deine Kunst“ which he is composing for the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg.
"Art Basel Miami Beach 2019" 5 - 8 December 2019 / Galerie Thomas Schulte, Booth C16
"IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS" at Schau Fenster, Berlin, 12 - 31 October 2019 / curated by Dr. Heike Fuhlbrügge
Michael Müller, Yael Bartana, Salome Machaidze, Sophia Saze, Monica Bonvicini, Levan Mindiachvili, Kyoko Taniyama, Uta Bekaia, Thomas Zipp, Julian Röder, Liane Lang, Adrian Piper, Davina Semo, Max Frisinger
DEINE KUNST (3): "The Conditions of being Art (oder der Amateur)" Opening 19 October 2019, 7pm at Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg (DE)
"Klappe zu, Affe tot" at Kunstsaele Berlin, 24 August - 28 September 2019
DEINE KUNST (2) "The Art(ist) is Present / Der Tod des Autors wird nicht zugelassen" at Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, 19 May - 6 October 2019, Opening Reception Saturday 18 May 2019, 7pm
"The Pregnant Man" at Studio Michael Müller, Berlin, 24 - 28 April 2019 / curated by Philipp Bollmann
"DRAWING BIENNIAL 2019" at Drawing Room London, 20 February - 26 March 2019
DEINE KUNST (1) "DIE KRISE DER STÄDTISCHEN GALERIE WOLFSBURG: Lösung oder Auflösung / DER LIQUIDATOR" a New Presentation of the Collection from the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, 9 February - 7 April 2019
"What's essential" at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, 1 – 29 September 2018
With Ali Kazim, Anwar Jalal Shemza, Gyan Panchal, Iftikhar Dadi & Elizabeth Dadi, Lionel Wendt, Lubna Chowdhary, Manisha Parekh, Michael Müller, Mohan Samant, Monika Correa, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Nalini Malani, Prem Sahib, Raghubir Singh, Rana Begum, Shambhavi Kaul, Shezad Dawood, Simryn Gill, Vasantha Yogananthan, Yamini Nayar, Zahoor ul Akhlaq
Shortlisted for "Kunstpreis der Böttcherstrasse" at Kunsthalle Bremen, 28 July – 30 September 2018: Michael Müller "Stripping the Force"
The exhibition presents a diversity and pushes this diversity to the extreme, it quotes from clichés and develops – in an eccentric, hybrid fashion – mutations and metastases. The “topic” of the exhibition (the people of the Himmelheber) is varied, fractured and fanned out – like a ray of light that is broken into a kaleidoscopic range of colours in a rainy sky. The possible and the real are progressively rendered indistinguishable. What is one’s own converges with the foreign other. And the longing for distant places is turned back onto itself. The works might appear to be ironic, associative and strangely uninhibited. But ultimately, it turns out, they are one thing above all: deeply human.
"Praxis, Probe und Produktion von Wirkungen und Wirklichkeiten" ("Praxis, Rehearsal and Production of Effects and Realities") at Kunsthalle Bremen, Performance, Friday 27 July, 7pm
"It smells like ... flowers & fragrances" at me Collectors Room, Berlin, 14 April - 1 July 2018 / curated by Dr. Heike Fuhlbrügge
With Olivia Berckemeyer, Bertozzi & Casoni, Norbert Bisky, Armin Boehm, Annedore Dietze, Ayşe Erkmen, EVA & ADELE, Tine Furler, Lennart Grau, Gregor Hildebrandt, Annett Kuhlmann, Nadia Lichtig, Leena Luostarinen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jonathan Meese, Ingo Mittelstaedt, Michael Müller, Karin Pliem, Ged Quinn, Gerhard Richter, Thomas Schütte, Luzia Simons, Sissel Tolaas & Georg Hornemann, Tomoyuki Ueno, Tina Winkhaus, Hansa Wisskirchen, Thomas Zitzwitz
"An Exhibition as a Copy" at Galerie du Monde, Hong Kong, 8 March – 21 April 2018
Entitled An Exhibition as a Copy, Michael Müller’s exhibition consists of four pairs or groups of similar exhibits that investigates the duality of the original and the copy. The juxtaposition of the peculiarities of the artworks’ surfaces underscores the form as well as instigates a dialogue with each other; it also allows for deviations to stand out. The relationship between model and reproduction, original and copy thus becomes increasingly unclear.
"Germany is not an island" Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany Acquisitions 2012–2016 at Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 8 March - 27 May 2018
The exhibition presents a selection of works acquired over the last five years by a specialist committee for the Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. It includes works by renowned young artists. The acquisitions testify to the high standard of the Federal Collection and show how historical and current developments, collective viewing habits and the questioning of image constructs translate into contemporary art. Ranging from large-scale installations to drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, video and sound works, the selection bears witness to the wealth of media and techniques that distinguish contemporary artistic practice.
"Seven Exhibitions" at BKV - Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, 28 March - 3 June 2018 / curated by Lukas Töpfer
With Donald Bernshouse, Geta Brătescu, Nina Canell, Daniel Gustav Cramer, Haris Epaminonda, Markus Hoffmann, Johanna Jaeger, Felix Kiessling, Antje Majewski, Michael Müller, Das Numen, Katie Paterson
"Everything we do is music" at Art Centre Pasquart, Biel (CH), 15 April - 10 June 2018 / curated by Shanay Jhaveri
This group show explores how Indian classical music has inspired modern and contemporary artists. The exhibition traces a long history: from early Indian miniature painting (Ragamalas) through to drawings, animations and video works from the present day. Including works by pivotal Indian and Pakistani artists, it features a number of works previously unseen in Europe, including new commissions. It also explores the influence of Indian classical music on important American artists in the 1960s, and its wider influence on western popular and counterculture.
"Vor und hinter dem Glas" at BKV - Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, 17 December 2017 - 11 February 2018 / curated by Lukas Töpfer
The exhibition is conceived to be viewed from the outside. The garden monument is open to the public during the regular opening hours from sunrise until 5 pm. Guided tours, which will be announced on the website in advance, will enable the visitor to see the interior space.
"Everything we do is music" at Drawing Room, London, 30 November 2017 - 18 February 2018 / curated by Shanay Jhaveri
A major new exhibition that explores how Indian classical music has inspired modern and contemporary artists.
"Kunstlicht" at Fuhrwerkswaage, Cologne, 3 - 17 December 2017
with Dragutin Banic, Anna Fasshauer, Claus Föttinger, Andreas Gursky, Gregor Hildebrandt, Friedrich Kunath, Alexey Meschtschanow, Meuser, Michael Müller, Hartmut Neumann, Werner Reiterer, Andreas Schulze, Koen Van den Broek, Geerten Verheus
"0,10 ODER DAS ÜBERLEBEN DER LEERE" at BKV - Brandenburgischer Kunstverein, Potsdam, 16 September - 18 November 2017 / curated by Michael Müller and Lukas Töpfer
with Art & Language, Angela de la Cruz, Rolf-Gunter Dienst, Marcel Duchamp, Bethan Huws, Kasimir Malewitsch, Vlado Martek and Michael Müller / Opening Reception Friday, 15 September 2017, 6 pm
"good to talk - 46 hours in conversation" at Berghain Kantine, 8 - 10 September 2017
For Good to Talk - 46 hours in conversation at Kantine im Berghain, Michael Müller will talk with Paula Doepfner about Robert Musil's novel The Man Without Qualities on September 9 at 9.15 pm
"Höchste Armut" at Aanant & Zoo, 8 September - 18 November 2017 / curated by Lukas Töpfer
"MEET ME IN HEAVEN" at Schloss Tüssling Projects, 1 - 18 June 2017 / curated by Philipp Bollmann
"Late Breakfast" at Künstlerhaus Palais Thurn und Taxis, Bregenz, 20 May - 26 June 2017 / composed by Alexander Mossbrugger, free counterpoint by Gerd de Vries
with Art & Language, Robert Barry, Monica Bonvicini, Tina Born, Marlene Zoë Burz & Manuel Kirsch, Hanne Darboven, Hubert Dietrich, Jiří Georg Dokoupil, Manfred Egender, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Ulrike Grossarth, André Kertész, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Hans-Jörg Mayer, Mathieu Mercier, Jonathan Monk, Michael Müller, Anne Neukamp, Frank Nitsche, Blinky Palermo, Erik Satie, Albrecht Schäfer, Rob Scholte, Christiane Seiffert, Florian Slotawa, Ingo Springenschmid, Fiete Stolte
"Teil 33. Nachlass zu Lebzeiten" & "Teil 18. Die Welt gibt es nicht" at Galerie Thomas Schulte, 29 April - 24 June 2017 ...
... Finale of the exhibition cycle with two parallel exhibitions, a performance and fashion show "Garten der Freundschaft" at Galerie Thomas Schulte, Friday 28 April 2017, 5pm
"Drawing Biennial 2017" at Drawing Room London, 2 March - 26 April 2017
Drawing Biennial 2017 offers insights into how artists contend with a world in rapid and disorienting flux. A snapshot of contemporary drawing practices, the exhibition includes more than 200 new and recent works on paper by leading international artists of different generations. >> more
"Third Rehearsal for Nietzsche's Birthday Party 2313", the accompanying catalogue of Michael Müller’s recent performance at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, now available!
The book is published in conjunction with the exhibition „SKITS. 13 Exhibitions in 9 Rooms“ (26.11.2016 – 19.02.2017) at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden.
Edited by Hendrik Bündge in cooperation with the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and Michael Müller / Texts by Hendrik Bündge, Travis Jeppesen and Lukas Töpfer / Musical Compositions by Therese Strasser / Graphic Design by Alexander Hahn / Images by Pascale Jean-Louis
German, English
Berlin 2016. 80 pp., ca. 100 48 ills., 21.00 x 29.00 cm, softcover
"For All Those Who Trust in Form and Not in Content" at Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai, 3 - 28 January 2017
Three bodies of work in ‘For All Those Who Trust in Form and Not in Content’ testify to the plurality and heterogeneity of Müller’s practice: the formally reduced and conceptually driven etchings, Verschwinden; the more ‘decorative’ installations of the Do It! series; and, lastly, expressive, figurative paintings like Small Indian Girl. (Excerpt from the press release). >> more
"Kunst und/oder Geld - Zum Verhältnis von Studium und Markt" at UdK Berlin, Thursday 8 December 2016, 6pm
Diskussion mit Akiko Bernhöft, Martin Dammann, Maria Eichhorn, Friederike Feldmann, Michael Müller, Diana Sirianni und Tobias Vogt, konzipiert und organisiert vom Institut für Kunstwissenschaft und Ästhetik und dem Institut Kunst der UdK Berlin
"Third Rehearsal for Nietzsche’s Birthday Party 2313" at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Fr. 25 November 2016, 7pm
Throughout the opening night of "SKITS. 13 Exhibitions in 9 Rooms" Michael Müller for the third time will direct the Rehearsal for Nietzsche's Birthday Party 2313. A sketch of community and conflict, individual and collective behaviors that both create and are subject to a social structure.
"WER SPRICHT? WHO'S SPEAKING?", the catalogue accompanying Michael Müller’s solo exhibition premiere at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, published at Hatje Cantz, now available!
Edited by KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Texts by Ellen Blumenstein, Travis Jeppesen, Daniel Tyradellis, graphic design by HIT Studio, Berlin, German, English
2016. 240 pp., ca. 100 ills., 18.50 x 22.00 cm, softcover, ISBN 978-3-7757-4113-2
"SKITS. 13 Exhibitions in 9 Rooms", Solo show at Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 25 November 2016 - 5 March 2017
To mark the reopening of its upper floor in November, 2016, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden will present ‘SKITS. 13 Ausstellungen in 9 Räumen’ (SKITS. 13 Exhibitions in 9 Rooms), a solo exhibition of the Berlin-based artist, Michael Müller. The artist engages with the human understanding of a world, in which belief in a multitude of systems, not subject to scrutiny, prevails. Questions of taste, beauty and other aesthetic attributes come to the fore. The installations, paintings, sculptures, video projections and objects serve as a medium through which Müller challenges the function of art and its attendant rites. >> more
"... und eine Welt noch", Kunsthaus Hamburg, 26 April - 26 June 2016 / curated by Miriam Schoofs & Katja Schroeder
Die Ausstellung "... und eine Welt noch" im Kunsthaus Hamburg nimmt das Werk der herausragenden Künstlerin Hanne Darboven (1941 – 2009) als Ausgangspunkt, um aus der Perspektive einer jüngeren internationalen KünstlerInnengeneration die Aktualität und Relevanz ihres Schaffens zu untersuchen.
Abgesehen von einigen exemplarischen Arbeiten von Darbovens Weggefährten (u. a. Almir Mavignier, Sol LeWitt und Lawrence Weiner) liegt der Fokus auf der Auswahl aktueller Positionen der zeitgenössischen Kunst, welche sich mit ähnlichen Fragestellungen und Strategien beschäftigen.
Die für Darboven charakteristische Verknüpfung von abstrakter, übergreifender Struktur und individueller Selbstverortung findet sich dabei sowohl in den Zeichenstrukturen, beispielsweise von Channa Horwitz oder Michael Müller, als auch in den Textarbeiten und Schreibsystemen von Fiona Banner, Irma Blank, Natalie Czech, den Zeitverläufen von Sigrid Sigurdsson oder der Geschichtsaneignung von Daniela Comani, Lia Perjovschi und Rayyane Tabet sowie in den Collagen des Zeitgeschehens und der Populärkultur von Isa Genzken, und Robert Heinecken oder den enzyklopädischen, materialästhetischen Ordnungssystemen von Henrik Olesen und Joëlle Tuerlinckx wieder. >> more
"The Big Other", Galerie Tanja Wagner, Berlin, 29 January - 2 March 2016 / curated by Paula Doepfner
The big Other, le grand Autre – a term by which Jacques Lacan refers to the mother, the first big Other in the defining dyad of mother and child. She is the representative of speech, the symbolic order into which the child enters as soon as she is able to recognize herself in the mirror. In that very moment, the child becomes aware of a certain lack, the inaccessibility of the relationship. Desire arises, and in her search for truth, the child attempts to express herself, to become independent. The child wants her desires to be satisfied. She wants to incorporate the object of desire, to possess it, love it, destroy it, hate it. The gap between the child and the big Other, meaning between the child and the symbolic order, which reflects the social order, is simultaneously compelling and unbearable. It coerces the speaking subject into being creative, into experiencing the limits and possibilities of reality, of that which is outside. (Excerpt from a text by Katja Ulmer).
"INSIDE-INSIGHT" Thursday 21 January 2016, 7pm at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin
Accompanying program to the exhibition WHO’S SPEAKING? by Michael Müller: Talk between artist Michael Müller and Ellen Blumenstein, Chief Curator of KW Institute for Contemporary Art.
"WHO'S SPEAKING?", KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 29 November 2015 - 24 January 2016
Michael Müller's first institutional solo exhibition WHO’S SPEAKING? brings together works from recent years with specifically-developed new productions, which use various ways for investigating the question of artistic authorship.
From Müller’s perspective, “who is speaking?” also means “what is being said?” and “why?” But also “who is listening?”; The exhibited works return time and again to the issue of how an artist becomes visible in his work. Each single piece stands at a pressure point between the application or transformation of historical and contemporary artistic codes, and the artist’s personal obsessions. >> more
"Zweite kleine Probe für Nietzsches Geburtstagsparty 2313", Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, 16 September 2015, 6-9pm
Michael Müller will for the second time rehearse with 18 musicians and performers the birthday party for Friedrich Nietzsche 2313.
"UNTER DEM RADAR: SERGE CHARCHOUNE" at KUNSTSAELE Berlin, 17 September - 21 November 2015 / curated by Merlin James & Michael Müller
Charchoune grew up in a rural environment among the forests and waters of the Russian region Samara, in the small town of Buguruslan. From early childhood he dreamed of a life as an artist, musician or writer. Later paintings (e.g. Epiderme Paysage in this exhibition) mirror his continuing connection to nature and everything organic. Having early on visited Moscow, Paris, Barcelona and Berlin he engaged with a great number of modern art forms such as Dadaism, Cubism, Purism and Informal abstraction. Despite contributing to to these various art 'styles', all Charchoune's works show his individual traits. To him the mutual exchange of art and sensory impressions were a synaesthetic interplay. Using a wide range of methods he managed to create cross-references between language, music and painting. >> more
"Erste kleine Probe für Nietzsches Geburtstagsparty 2313", Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, 2 July 2015
in ARTNEWS
in Der Tagesspiegel
Performing on or using the exhibited objects, Müller has 15 actors present musical and performative actions on the evening before the opening, entitled “Erste kleine Probe für Nietzsches Geburtstagsparty 2313”. Through the contact, the pieces are integrated into a context, which will remain even after the performance has taken place, and thus obtain a narrative charge. Contact so becomes equally a transformation, in which art objects turn to quasi objects of use and puts into question the hierarchy of things or even goes so far as to rearrange it.
The idea, which is played out in the rehearsal of the actors, to celebrate the 70th jubilee of the Habsburg Emperor Franz Joseph with a Nietzsche-year, came from Clarisse, a character from Robert Musil’s novel, The Man Without Qualities, which continuously serves Michael Müller as a point of reference throughout his exhibition cycle. The celebration, which is rejected in the novel, due to its absurdity, is now displaced by Müller into the year 2313 and thus continues Musil’s “conscious utopianism”, which comes to effect in various forms throughout the novel.
It involves sensemaking through aestheticization to optimize the freedom to think up alternatives to religion and worship of the body. Contact points are not only included in every work, whether mathematically, spiritually or physically addressed, but linked equally throughout the exhibition and as part of the whole with the cycle.
"Fire and Forget. On Violence", KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, 16 June - 30 August 2015 / curated by Ellen Blumenstein & Daniel Tyradellis
Fire and forget" comes from military jargon, and is a term for weapons systems that are no longer used in direct combat with an enemy but are launched from a safe distance. The exhibition FIRE AND FORGET. ON VIOLENCE takes the military expression as the starting point for an examination of the conventional ideas about war and force. It is oriented towards the most visible agent of violence: weapons.
"basal", Aanant & Zoo, Berlin, 21 February - 11 April 2015
The Greek origin of the word “basal“ refers to the fundamental and the basic. In medicine and anatomy, where the term is most commonly found, basal describes both minimal levels necessary for survival and the position of an organ at the root of a system or structure. In the arts, drawing has traditionally been the medium most closely associated with formulating the founding principles of a body of work, and bringing to light the elementary processes in an artists' practice. It is with pleasure that Aanant & Zoo announces basal, a group exhibition featuring drawings by 11 international artists. Not only do the works selected indicate a root investigation in each artists' practice, they also explore notions of the base or bottom from multiple and sometimes contradictory points of view.
