“Remote Controlled” is the title of the exhibition and also of Karin Müller’s new two-part video work. In her video montages, the artist uses sequences from war, action and science fiction films. War, or rather war in feature films, its iconography and metaphors are tracked down and exaggerated.
The video collages “Sonnenkrieger” (Sun Warrior) and “Gong” play with the paradox of kitsch and cruelty and dismantle heroism and machismo. The sun is a symbol of life. When the sun sets in the evening, a piece of life disappears with it. In films, the sunset is often used as a stylistic device to symbolise approaching death and the end. The sunset is also the epitome of kitsch – a simple, accessible way of expressing feelings. However, kitsch also stands for conflict-free, dishonesty and escapism.
Another installation, in the Perla-Mode basement, shows six different loop works on monitors. In the broadest sense, the installation deals with the command in war as part of an absurd and brutal game. Over and over again, the phrases “we have orders!’ and ‘orders? whose orders?” are heard from a monitor. A man hammers on the wall of his cell in desperation. The repetition of the voice and the hammering blend into a threatening soundscape, creating a feeling of hopelessness.
On the first floor of Perla-Mode, in the message salon, Karin Müller presents a selection of posters with black-and-white photographs. The images convey an atmosphere of peculiar melancholy and lostness that threatens to tip over into ridicule. In Karin Müller’s photography, the unadorned, normal existence searches for meaning and urgency.
Karin Müller has invited artist and musician Franziska Koch and musician Roland Saum to perform in her installation “Remote Controlled” during the vernissage. The performance will respond to the spatial and content-related parameters of Karin Müller’s work and musically translate the technique of fragmentation and collage.