Michael Beutler
Guest at JoyCom´s
23 Nov 2017 - 13 Jan 2018
Michael Beutler
Guest at Joycom’s, 2016
Hitachiomiya, Kenpoku Art Festival
Holz, Wasser, Bambus, Faden, Shoji Papier, Tusche, Pool, Böcke, Socken, Reiskleber, Dämmmaterial, PVC Rohre, Stoff, Gummi
Workshop: variabel
Installation: 7 x 10 x 10 m
Installation view, Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin
Photo: Simon Vogel
Guest at Joycom’s, 2016
Hitachiomiya, Kenpoku Art Festival
Holz, Wasser, Bambus, Faden, Shoji Papier, Tusche, Pool, Böcke, Socken, Reiskleber, Dämmmaterial, PVC Rohre, Stoff, Gummi
Workshop: variabel
Installation: 7 x 10 x 10 m
Installation view, Galerie Nagel Draxler, Berlin
Photo: Simon Vogel
MICHAEL BEUTLER
Guest at JoyCom ́s
23 November 2017 – 13 January 2018
In Michael Beutler’s work, the subject of “the workshop” is central. He doesn’t use the format as an existing structure, for instance to make “works” there, but creates a new workshop every time. The workshop is the work Beutler’s art comprises the invention of workshops. One could also say: the invention of labour. He creates machines and tools leading to workflows. The resulting installations follow an invented constructive functionality.
In 2016 Beutler participated in the Kenpou Art Exhibition in Hitachiomiya, Japan. In the “shrinking city” empty shops and malls were used to exhibit a variety of art projects. Beutler, in collaboration with a traditional temple carpenter and residents of Hitachiomiya, developed a print and wood workshop, resulting in a pavilion-like swimming structure out of wood, bamboo and paper. The supporting parts of the installation are fixed in tanks that are placed in a basin at the structure’s centre. It contains the exact amount of water necessary to keep the structure floating. Like this, the round corpus can be brought to smooth rotation without effort. Gravity seems to be left behind. Like all art, the work doesn’t follow an aim, but an aesthetical sense. It has a meditative effect on the viewer, who can watch the slow movement of the installation from the outside and from within.
In his exhibition “Guest at JoyCom ́s” at Galerie Nagel Draxler Michael Beutler shows the complete construction of Hitachiomiya dismantled in single parts, including the print and rolling machines. The piled cedar wood is marked. Each beam has its place. In this form of presentation the precision of the woodwork and the “beauty of craftsmanship” become very significant. Japanese temple carpenters do not use screws or nails. This makes their “art”. In Asian cultures art comes from applied arts. The concept, that sees art as an independent attribute, is much younger there than it is in Europe. “Autonomous art” has long since become obsolete. The concept-, context-, discourse evolved into varieties to safe art’s ideal. Also the relocation of the applied within the context of art has been tested many times: cooking-art, knitting-art (like at the latest Venice Biennial for instance!) etc..
Michael Beutler works on and with this distinction as an artist, not through adapting the applied as a format presented in the context of art. But through creating his own formats of the applied, that paradoxically are not aligned to any exploitable purpose.
Guest at JoyCom ́s
23 November 2017 – 13 January 2018
In Michael Beutler’s work, the subject of “the workshop” is central. He doesn’t use the format as an existing structure, for instance to make “works” there, but creates a new workshop every time. The workshop is the work Beutler’s art comprises the invention of workshops. One could also say: the invention of labour. He creates machines and tools leading to workflows. The resulting installations follow an invented constructive functionality.
In 2016 Beutler participated in the Kenpou Art Exhibition in Hitachiomiya, Japan. In the “shrinking city” empty shops and malls were used to exhibit a variety of art projects. Beutler, in collaboration with a traditional temple carpenter and residents of Hitachiomiya, developed a print and wood workshop, resulting in a pavilion-like swimming structure out of wood, bamboo and paper. The supporting parts of the installation are fixed in tanks that are placed in a basin at the structure’s centre. It contains the exact amount of water necessary to keep the structure floating. Like this, the round corpus can be brought to smooth rotation without effort. Gravity seems to be left behind. Like all art, the work doesn’t follow an aim, but an aesthetical sense. It has a meditative effect on the viewer, who can watch the slow movement of the installation from the outside and from within.
In his exhibition “Guest at JoyCom ́s” at Galerie Nagel Draxler Michael Beutler shows the complete construction of Hitachiomiya dismantled in single parts, including the print and rolling machines. The piled cedar wood is marked. Each beam has its place. In this form of presentation the precision of the woodwork and the “beauty of craftsmanship” become very significant. Japanese temple carpenters do not use screws or nails. This makes their “art”. In Asian cultures art comes from applied arts. The concept, that sees art as an independent attribute, is much younger there than it is in Europe. “Autonomous art” has long since become obsolete. The concept-, context-, discourse evolved into varieties to safe art’s ideal. Also the relocation of the applied within the context of art has been tested many times: cooking-art, knitting-art (like at the latest Venice Biennial for instance!) etc..
Michael Beutler works on and with this distinction as an artist, not through adapting the applied as a format presented in the context of art. But through creating his own formats of the applied, that paradoxically are not aligned to any exploitable purpose.