ART-PRESENTATION: Matthias Müller
Matthias Müller is an artist working in film, video, installation and photography. As a curator, Müller has organized numerous avant-garde film events, such as the Found Footage Film Festival (1996 and ’99), the first German festival of autobiographical films, Ich etc. (1998), and various touring programs. Since 1999 he has been collaborating with Christoph Girardet.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Campagne Première Archive
In his new solo exhibition “While You Were Out”, Matthias Müller presents am extensive new group of works consisting of: photographic works, a multiple and a video, the artist makes use of an archive of 1,500 screenshots. The images come from streams emanating from private chat rooms of the Web 2.0. In the photographic work “While You Were Out” Müller arranges countless office chairs according to shape and color in the style of a scientific wall chart. Also in “Waiting Rooms”, a frieze consisting of 28 individual prints, the artist transfers interiors into a serial arrangement and, through almost film-like connections, conveys the impression of a common bond existing between them. The 100 postcards of the edition “You Are Here” offer views into one hundred of these empty chat rooms that all share one characteristic: On their walls are geographical maps of all types. They seem to reflect the wish to participate in another, larger world and at the same time express a strange ambivalence arising from the fact that the virtual space on the Internet, concealed by the protagonists through fantasy names such as “Neverland” or “Somewhere”, are linked to their actual location by these references. By transforming the screenshots into postcards and thus handing them over to the viewer who can touch and move, even mail them, Müller restores an intimacy and binding character to communication, qualities that are under threat in the World Wide Web. In the video loop “Air” the (low) provenance and trivial motifs of the visual material stand in contrast to the sublimity of a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach as an elaborate expression of high culture. But just as the images of the empty spaces do not show the presence of any persons, so has the musical composition been partly stripped of its melodic upper voice. With his treatment of visual material from the Web 2.0, Müller focuses on a part of moving picture production that differs in various ways from the filmic genres which up to now have been central to his individual works and joint projects with Christoph Girardet. This extensive sector does not consist of professional productions but is the work of amateurs. The recordings made here are not introduced into a new narrative sequence with the help of montage but develop in real time with no external intervention.
Info: Campagne Première GmbH, Chausseestrasse 116, Berlin, Duration: 14/10-3/12/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.campagne-premiere.com
