Michael Müller: Was nennt sich Kunst, was heißt uns wahrsein?
31 May - 26 Jul 2014
Michael Müller / Zusammen sind wir stark, 2013 / Silkscreen on crystal mirror / 120x120cm / © Courtesy of the artist & The Galerie Thomas Schulte
Parallel to the launch of the 8th Berlin Biennial, Galerie Thomas Schulte will host the opening of Michael Müller’s current solo exhibition “Was nennt sich Kunst, was heißt uns wahrsein?“ (What is considered art? What does it mean to be true to oneself?), the eleventh part of his exhibition cycle, which started last spring. With this show, Müller further attempts discover that which we call art and what truth means to us. Little time is left until object, space, and color transform a twelfth time. The cycle ends with a grand finale – or, in other words, with the “Kleine Probe für Nietzsches Geburtstagsparty 2313” (Small Rehearsal for Nietzsche’s Birthday Party 2313) this fall.
There’s really nothing left to say. All possible approaches have been distributed. All the walls are endlessly occupied, all the surfaces are covered with wallpaper or carpeting, in pink. Pedestals are everywhere, covered with works, objects, and artifacts. Every corner of the exhibition space is layered with sound. An overflow of stimulation.
But if there’s nothing left to say, the question remains: what’s it all about? When everything has already been said, it could be said that nothing more actually is said. There’s only noise. Ultimately it’s about giving the open space of possibility a form to structure the noise so that some things then do remain to be said.
In the midst of the numerous opinions, assumptions, facts, and objects, is there actually “truthfulness”? Does there still exist, today as well, what we once with such endearing self-confidence called “truth”? What role does art play in this? Whatever calls itself art can only be deduced from itself (that presents “itself”). Whatever it has to say, we must translate. Since it is generally silent, we translate freely.
The reading, and the friendship, that always went deepest – to the heart of the matter – was yours.
Come closer. Take your time.
Take off your shoes.
Equal among equals.
Michael Müller, born 1970 in Ingelheim on the Rhine, lives and works in Berlin. He studied sculpting and fine arts at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf with Magdalena Jetelová. Alongside numerous gallery exhibitions, Müller has participated in many institutional group exhibitions in the past ten years in Germany and elsewhere, for instance at the Kunsthaus Dresden (2012) and at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik in Bonn (2013). Currently, his works are presented at the Kunstsaele and at the headquarters of Sanofi at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Next month, two further shows with Müller’s participation will open at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa and at the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art in Moskow.
There’s really nothing left to say. All possible approaches have been distributed. All the walls are endlessly occupied, all the surfaces are covered with wallpaper or carpeting, in pink. Pedestals are everywhere, covered with works, objects, and artifacts. Every corner of the exhibition space is layered with sound. An overflow of stimulation.
But if there’s nothing left to say, the question remains: what’s it all about? When everything has already been said, it could be said that nothing more actually is said. There’s only noise. Ultimately it’s about giving the open space of possibility a form to structure the noise so that some things then do remain to be said.
In the midst of the numerous opinions, assumptions, facts, and objects, is there actually “truthfulness”? Does there still exist, today as well, what we once with such endearing self-confidence called “truth”? What role does art play in this? Whatever calls itself art can only be deduced from itself (that presents “itself”). Whatever it has to say, we must translate. Since it is generally silent, we translate freely.
The reading, and the friendship, that always went deepest – to the heart of the matter – was yours.
Come closer. Take your time.
Take off your shoes.
Equal among equals.
Michael Müller, born 1970 in Ingelheim on the Rhine, lives and works in Berlin. He studied sculpting and fine arts at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf with Magdalena Jetelová. Alongside numerous gallery exhibitions, Müller has participated in many institutional group exhibitions in the past ten years in Germany and elsewhere, for instance at the Kunsthaus Dresden (2012) and at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik in Bonn (2013). Currently, his works are presented at the Kunstsaele and at the headquarters of Sanofi at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Next month, two further shows with Müller’s participation will open at the Des Moines Art Center in Iowa and at the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art in Moskow.