Bjørn Melhus
16 Jan - 28 Feb 2009
BJØRN MELHUS
16 January 2009 - 28 February 2009
MARS: Fourth planet in the solar system, named after the latin god of war Mars
We are pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Bjørn Melhus at Andreas Grimm Munich entitled “MARS RECOVERY.” The new body of work includes videos, photographs and objects orbiting around the once dead, but now reanimated fantasy of the conquest of planet Mars. After the failure of three US-American movies from 2000/2001 (Mission to Mars, Red Planet and Ghosts of Mars) the subject “Mars” has become a taboo in Hollywood, one that even George W. Bush’s multi-million Marsprogram in 2004 couldn’t avoid. Together with the consciousness of global climatic and financial crises, the red planet conceived as a possible destination for human beings re-appears in the media. Both in the arctic and the desert of Utah, members of the Mars society already prepare their emigration, the American Internet-Billionaire Elon Musk works on his own Mars rocket and a German privately financed balloon is sent to Mars.
A shareholder-based and privately subsidized occupation of the planet is discussed in current publications including topics such as the planting of vegetation on Mars using methods of terraforming. But the Utopian idea remains refracted: none of the recent cinematic narratives include successful missions to Mars; if they had, critics might have decried the lack of suspense and narrative boredom. Two of the flops from 2000 include the murder of the crew and, in the third, evil spirits of first-wave inhabitants revenge their displacement on the newer earthly emigrants, involuntary activating American trauma and guilt.
On the first floor of the gallery, Melhus shows a MARS-neon sign and a textual projection, as well as portraits of hypothetical survivors of the three failed Mars movies, represented by Melhus himself. His video work quotes visual and acoustical phrases and pulls them together into a new context. While his 12-channel installation in the lower-level gallery aurally demonstrates the essence of a steady outer space search-and-rescue effort, the projection illustrates romantic images of the planet’s landscape, occupied by pioneers from Earth. Human beings and nature are brought together into an idyllic unit, while simultaneously evoking negative connotations about another controlled and conquered environment.
In addition to his solo show at Andreas Grimm Munich, Bjørn Melhus is also at the moment presented as part of the Osram Art Project, Munich with his installation “Screen Savers”. Until April 22, 2009, the LED-boards in front of the Osram building at Mittlerer Ring in Munich visualize commonplace languages of mass media, including digital comic superheroes.
In the artistic tradition of Paul McCarthy and Cindy Sherman, media artist Melhus (*1966 in Kirchheim/Teck) in a uniquely individual way refects the mechanisms of mass media. Public interest on the works of Bjørn Melhus is evidenced by prizes and grants such as the Sprengel-Prize for fine arts, Hannover, the prize for video art at Marl and the HAP-Grieshaber-Prize, as well as by different solo- and group exhibitions in Amsterdam, Berlin, Los Angeles, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Zurich.
16 January 2009 - 28 February 2009
MARS: Fourth planet in the solar system, named after the latin god of war Mars
We are pleased to announce the first solo exhibition of Bjørn Melhus at Andreas Grimm Munich entitled “MARS RECOVERY.” The new body of work includes videos, photographs and objects orbiting around the once dead, but now reanimated fantasy of the conquest of planet Mars. After the failure of three US-American movies from 2000/2001 (Mission to Mars, Red Planet and Ghosts of Mars) the subject “Mars” has become a taboo in Hollywood, one that even George W. Bush’s multi-million Marsprogram in 2004 couldn’t avoid. Together with the consciousness of global climatic and financial crises, the red planet conceived as a possible destination for human beings re-appears in the media. Both in the arctic and the desert of Utah, members of the Mars society already prepare their emigration, the American Internet-Billionaire Elon Musk works on his own Mars rocket and a German privately financed balloon is sent to Mars.
A shareholder-based and privately subsidized occupation of the planet is discussed in current publications including topics such as the planting of vegetation on Mars using methods of terraforming. But the Utopian idea remains refracted: none of the recent cinematic narratives include successful missions to Mars; if they had, critics might have decried the lack of suspense and narrative boredom. Two of the flops from 2000 include the murder of the crew and, in the third, evil spirits of first-wave inhabitants revenge their displacement on the newer earthly emigrants, involuntary activating American trauma and guilt.
On the first floor of the gallery, Melhus shows a MARS-neon sign and a textual projection, as well as portraits of hypothetical survivors of the three failed Mars movies, represented by Melhus himself. His video work quotes visual and acoustical phrases and pulls them together into a new context. While his 12-channel installation in the lower-level gallery aurally demonstrates the essence of a steady outer space search-and-rescue effort, the projection illustrates romantic images of the planet’s landscape, occupied by pioneers from Earth. Human beings and nature are brought together into an idyllic unit, while simultaneously evoking negative connotations about another controlled and conquered environment.
In addition to his solo show at Andreas Grimm Munich, Bjørn Melhus is also at the moment presented as part of the Osram Art Project, Munich with his installation “Screen Savers”. Until April 22, 2009, the LED-boards in front of the Osram building at Mittlerer Ring in Munich visualize commonplace languages of mass media, including digital comic superheroes.
In the artistic tradition of Paul McCarthy and Cindy Sherman, media artist Melhus (*1966 in Kirchheim/Teck) in a uniquely individual way refects the mechanisms of mass media. Public interest on the works of Bjørn Melhus is evidenced by prizes and grants such as the Sprengel-Prize for fine arts, Hannover, the prize for video art at Marl and the HAP-Grieshaber-Prize, as well as by different solo- and group exhibitions in Amsterdam, Berlin, Los Angeles, Madrid, Moscow, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Zurich.