M+M
Fan of Man
Under the title M+M. Fan of Man the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz show video works, installations, and photo series by the artist duo M+M (Martin De Mattia, *1963, and Marc Weis, *1965). The artists, who work in Munich, have been awarded numerous international exhibitions, prizes, and residency scholarships, such as at the Villa Massimo in Rome in 1998 or at the German Study Centre in Venice in 2017. In 2012, they won the competition for the Leipzig Freedom and Unity Monument, together with the Berlin architectural office Annabau.
In this exhibition, M+M present three groups of works created over a period of several years, which focus on the social developments of recent history and their psychological effects. M+M also specifically address the City of Chemnitz and the Kunstsammlungen.
The heart of the exhibition is the Panic Room Chemnitz (2019). In this expansive installation, M+M develop a pointed contemporary inventory of social conflicts and global political events. A newspaper specially designed for the exhibition, Merkel 05, with the controversial »Wir schaffen das« (»We can do this«) speech by the German Chancellor, serves as wallpaper for the walls and floor of the exhibition room. Photographs of the series in front are spread over the walls. They dissect significant news broadcasts in the fanning-out of all their video stills, also referring to the events in Chemnitz in the summer of 2018, thus creating a relational system of references that also reflects the omnipresence and manipulative visual language of the media.
In the four-channel film installation 7 Days, M+M stage seven feature film–like scenes as interwoven double sequences and lead directly into the abysses of a changeable psyche. The actor Christoph Luser embodies the ambivalent main character, who is exposed to highly contradictory situations. In 7 Days, M+M question concepts of identity against the background of a radically changed perception of time. The film installation is a central work of the artist duo and was developed in almost seven years of work. As a museum premiere, the Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz also present the epilogue to the film series, completed in 2018: The 8th Day. In its complex and multi-layered narrative, the entire cycle refers to twentieth-century film history.
The latest group of works, the abstract photo series tessuti (2019), concludes the cycle. It traces, almost microscopically, the phenomenon of high-quality, traditional textiles, which as handmade brocades, silk wallpapers, or ornamentally woven furniture covers find their way into the centres of religious or political power: the Vatican, the Kremlin, the White House, as well as into the hotspots of Hollywood’s high society. tessuti was started by M+M during their stay in Venice and is inspired by local textile production, whose anachronistic-looking goods are sold worldwide as luxury goods. It draws a bow to the history of Chemnitz, a city that is itself shaped by the textile industry and whose art collections include a comprehensive textile collection that is important in a European context.
Accompanying Programme
Panel Discussion
Sunday, 16 June 2019, 11 a.m.
Conflict, Monument and Public Art
On the occasion of their new publication on the failed Freedom and Unity Monument in Leipzig, M+M are in conversation with Prof. Dr. Dieter Daniels (HGB Leipzig) and Prof. Dr. Florian Matzner (Academy of Fine Arts Munich)
Curator’s Tours
Wednesday, 19 June 2019, 14 August 2019, 11 September 2019, 6:30 p.m. each
Open Workshop
Friday, 21 June 2019, 11:30 a.m.
Fan of Man
An exhibition tour followed by a creative and dialogical examination of its contents in the Chemnitz Open Space, in cooperation with the Chair of English Literature at Chemnitz Technical University
Artist Talk
Wednesday, 10 July 2019, 8:15 pm
A tour of the exhibition by M+M, followed by an artist talk and film screening of Saturday Night Fever, in cooperation with Filmnächte Chemnitz
Lecture
Wednesday, 28 August 2019, 18:30
Observations in the Panic Room
Dr. Sebastian Baden (Mannheim Art Gallery)
