Minimetal is an art project that elevates both the pose and authenticity of rock music to an art form in the gallery. In 1995, the two Zurich artists Nik Emch on guitar and Laurent Goei on drums gave their first performance under the name ‘Minimetal’ in Esther Eppstein’s exhibition space ‘Monotony’ on Rennweg – a punk rock concert in a cardboard box. Since then, Minimetal has presented sound installations and live performances in numerous galleries, art spaces and institutions.
During a brilliant phase of breakthrough in the 1990s, eleven songs were created, which were finally released on a double LP in 2008. To this day, the eleven pieces of music, the ’11 Mantras’, form the foundation of Minimetal’s performances and installations. In the exhibition concept ‘Tour de Galeries’, which has been running since 2007, each song is staged as a self-contained work in the art space. Video, photography, graphics and painting are part of the visual realisation of the Minimetal product, an art band that plays with punk, pop culture and the sexiness of the underground.
In the current exhibition ‘Laurent Emch & Nik Goei by Minimetal’ at Perla-Mode, Minimetal presents a stopover from ‘Tour de Galeries’. Collected material from past performances (Swiss Institute N.Y, Galerie Nicola von Senger, Zurich) is processed and rearranged with newly created works. Minimetal stages the song ‘Velvet Underground’ with video projection and loudspeakers in the basement of Perla-Mode, as a dark, scenic backdrop to a possible natural disaster. In the large Perla-Mode room, the song ‘Acid’ plays in the strangely deserted setting of an aggressively hyped concert venue. Finally, on the first floor, in the message salon, Minimetal displays the LP (limited edition, 2008), the Minimetal poster and a unique nickel record on a turntable, as well as the key work ‘11 Mantras’ in a series of original picture panels.
‘Laurent Emch & Nik Goei by Minimetal’ celebrates the rock band, the cult and the rock musician as male heroes who transform aggression, destructiveness and darkness into a creation full of power and creativity. The rock band is the concept of merging and bundling power, dissolving boundaries and identities. The band, the creation, has empowered its creators, shaping its members like characters who soon no longer know for sure who they are, Laurent or Nik, Goei or Emch.