upstairs / berlin Shows MYTH ~ Matrix of the World

Wednesday, 30 May 2007 08:15

BERLIN, GERMANY - Upstairs berlin is pleased to announce the thematic group exhibition Myth – Matrix of the World featuring six contemporary artists shown for the first time together in Berlin. Jin Lie, Jonathan Meese, Ilias Papailiakis, David Renggli, Simon Schubert and Diamantis Sotiropoulos deal with the meaning of myth in different ways. Their works imply that the power of mythic thinking and imagination is undiminished and that myth constitutes an essential element of artistic creation. Just as the artists of previous centuries aspired to visually question the genesis of the world and its end, the origin of gods and men and certain natural phenomena, these six artists attempt to explain the world starting from myth and represent it in paintings, sculptures and installations. On exhibition until 21 JULY, 2007.

In his apparently mystical paintings, Jin Lie (born 1969) depicts mostly deserted, locally and temporally indefinable landscapes as sections of a world view. The visual concentration and intensification characteristic of his philosophical, meditative views are distinctive of Lie’s works. They attest to his effort to visualize natural phenomena, to start to understand the universe and capture it on canvas.

Far from any norm Jonathan Meese (born 1970) creates his own universe: overwhelming settings of images, texts, insignia, objects and individual neologisms. With his unique combination of styles the multimedia artist radically attempts to comprise existential matters in symbols. Thus Meese assigns a new, often mythically charged meaning to all kinds of conceivable characters, rulers and famous thinkers from history, stars and heroes from film and fiction.

Ilias Papailiakis ’s (born 1970) oil paintings recall cruel and riotous life-forms of bygone cultures. Evoking Flemish still lives, baroque painting, European literature and religious iconography the artist includes current events in a dialogue with enduring moments of Greek myths of gods and heroes. The resulting images are at the same time opulent and highly concentrated: mature scenes of sublime suffering which Papailiakis uses as allegories for a mythically founded history of mankind.

In his subversive works, David Renggli (born 1974) explores the relation between myth and reality. Scenic, sculptural arrangements of profane objects serve as metaphors to materialize the complexity of life. Renggli’s assemblages are charged with partly mythical meaning and function as installations as well as two-dimensional works.

In Simon Schubert’s (born 1976) figurative sculptures the influence of his preoccupation with the notion of “disappearance” in the work of Samuel Beckett becomes apparent. His works appear enigmatic, profound and impenetrable, developing a physical and spiritual atmosphere where the solitude of the individual, vacuity of meaning, weariness and hopelessness take the centre stage. Modern myths and surreal punchlines set against a gloomy background ask for interpretation.

Diamantis Sotiropoulos ’s (born 1978) large-scale works on paper are based on an anthropocentric world view: He attributes a symbolism to the iconography of animals standing as a code for humankind as the centre of the universe. Inspired by Greek mythology, Sotiropoulos’s symbolic interpretations of fauna and satyr-like mythical creatures reverse historically inveterate proportions of power.

Devoid of myth, modern man lacks the power of abbreviation, the definition of horizons achieved by myth. Myth is the matrix of the world – it sets an mage of the world and surrounds the world with images. (Norbert Bolz in: A Short History of Appearance, 1991)

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