HALEH-GALLERY.COM LOGO

ONE WORLD (UNITED & UNTITLED)

ONE WORLD (UNITED & UNTITLED)

By

Philipp Messner

Opening:  23 May 2014, 6 – 9 pm

Exhibition: 24 May – 7 July 2014

In attempts to remember times long ago, an accumulation of images from the private and collective visual memory arise before the eye of the observer. Many of these images are blurry, hardly any details are visible, and many impressions have lost their colours. Memories are constructed from black and white pictures from the past.

This is the point that the works of the exhibition ONE WORLD (UNITED & UNTITLED) by Philipp Messner at Haleh Gallery is addressing. Philipp Messner explores the effects of increasing globalization with his artistic works. The works A3_UNITED and UNTITLED FLAGS consist of a mosaic of national flags, but the flags can hardly be identified; the black print reduces stripes and political emblems to graphic patterns. This is a further indication that, in today’s world, not only nation-state territories became less important, but also cultural differences are homogenised.

The work FLASHBACK has also picked up the subject of national flags. Political emblems, which are designed for the representation of nation statehood, were made of laser cut-offs of a steel plate and through a performative act installed onto a wall. Only a model record remains and demonstrates the arbitrariness of these visual codes.

With the artistic works for ONE WORLD (UNITED & UNTITLED) Philipp Messner creates an archaeology of the globalization for the future; objects from a bygone age, which once should represent nationhood are reduced to their basic shapes and thus are proving the absurdity of this idea. This strategy works also as a concept on the aesthetic level:  A distinguishable and recognizable artistic handwriting is replaced in favour of an industrial and universal aesthetic.

Philipp Messner creates, with his artistic works, a culture of remembrance regarding an old and fading world order. What remains is a faint memory whispered by the black square.

Philipp Messner (*1975) lives and works in Munich. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, in the class of Michelangelo Pistoletto and at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA), Paris (class of Giuseppe Penone und Jean-Luc Vilmouth).

Awards and fellowships (selection):

Residency Contemporary Art Center Ujazdowski Castle, Warschau, PL (2009/10);

„Kunstpreis Museion“, Bozen, I, (2008)

Solo exhibitions (selection):

“unknown again” Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen (2012); Galerie Bernd Kugler (mit Christine Moldrickx), Innsbruck (2010); „Vacuum“, Steinle Contemporary, München (2009); „Die Produktion der Konstruktion“, arge/kunst, Bozen, I (2007)

The exhibition ONE WORLD (UNITED&UNTITLED) by Philipp Messner continues until end of August.
« Back to exhibition overview