Jonathan Meese at de Appel arts centre
de Appel arts centre
Solo exhibition:
Jonathan Meese
Jonathan Rockford (don’t call me back, please)
26 May - 19 August 2007
de Appel arts centre
Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10
1017 DE Amsterdam
tel: +3120 625 5651
fax: +3120 622 5215
http://www.deappel.nl
info@deappel.nl
Open: Tuesday - Sunday 11am-6pm
‘In the work of Jonathan Meese everything is Everything and everything is Nothing’, according to art historian Friedrich Meschede. Jonathan Meese (Tokyo 1970), an ‘inventor of idols’ who lives and works in Berlin and Hamburg, has installed in de Appel a contemporary ‘site-specific’ Wunderkammer with paintings, murals, drawings, assemblages, objects, collages, photos, pictures from magazines, posters and painted texts on the walls.
Jonathan Meese is one of German art’s rising stars, who through his radical way of working, ambitious themes and heavy symbolism has caused quite a stir since he graduated from the Hamburg-based Hochschule für Bildende Künsten in 1998. His work is based on an almost nineteenth century early romantic attitude to art: it is the mission of the artist to serve ‘die Sache Kunst’. This has generated an oeuvre that presents an eccentric universe filled with personal obsessions and bizarre fantasies: art with a grand gesture that depicts visions and appeals to universal sentiments. With his eclectic mix of mythology, history and pop culture, Meese alludes to major upheavals in Western political, art-historical and cultural history. He does not shy from pathos or bombast and refers repeatedly to his personal (notorious) ‘heroes’ that range from dictators and Hollywood stars to philosophers and musicians. Noel Coward and Ezra Pound, Marquis de Sade and Dorian Gray, Stalin and
Nero, Wagner and Napoleon, or Nietzsche and even Meese’s own mother populate his chaotically visualized world of ideas. The installations in de Appel bear witness to Meese’s interest in ‘imposing’ themes like fallen heroes, the cycle of life, and the opposing forces of good and evil.
An intrinsic part of Meese’s artistic practice is his much discussed performances. Since a few years, Meese also dares to venture outside the domains of visual art by collaborating with theatre makers and pursuing his own theatrical projects. After designing the stage décors for ‘Die Meistersänger’ and ‘Kokain’ by the German director Frank Castorf, his own theatre production ‘De frau - Dr Pounddadylein’ was premiered at the Berlin Volksbühne in January 2007. During the opening of the exhibition in de Appel, on May 25th 2007, Jonathan Meese held a memorable performance, the fruits of which are to be seen in the present installation.
For more information go to: http://www.deappel.nl