14. November – 13. December 2009
In his exhibition „Visions of Macbeth", Markus Selg concentrates on the classic tragedy of Shakespeares´ Macbeth into a scenario of memories and dreams.
Using filmprojections, music, fog, wind, light and minimalistic requisites, Selg creates a dreamscape throughout the MeetFactory Gallery which tells the story of Macbeth from a point of no return. From a point, where all hope is lost, euphoria is gone and destiny is certain.
Visions of a tempting prophecy;
The dream of becoming king and queen;
The illusion of ever lasting power and invulnerability;
All these ghosts appear and fade constantly throughout the hypnotic scenario of the
exhibition which culminates in the Ruins of Inverness (Lady Macbeth and Macbeth´s
former castle). Encouraged by the soundscape, including Hindemith´s Harmonie der Welt, Mahler´s 9th and Liszt´s Finale of Faust, time slows down to an expanded moment
of bitter sweet memories - waiting for the end to come.
CHORUS MYSTICUS
All things transitory
Are only symbols;
What is insufficient,
Here becomes an event;
The indescribable
Here is accomplished;
The eternal feminine
Pulls us upwards.
(Goethe, Faust, 1831)
Markus Selg, born in 1974 Singen, Germany, lives and works in Berlin, has always taken the individual work as his point of departure. Working in a wide variety of media - paintings, sculptures, computer prints and more recently also moving images - his integration of spatial structures and custom-made lighting systems began to precipitate comprehensive installations at an early stage. The universal and eternally recurring motifs of human history and mythology - creation, fall, perdition and resurrection - play a central role in these scenarios.
From 1996 to 2000 Markus Selg was part of the Akademie Isotrop (Hamburg), of which he was a founding member and co-editor of Isotrop magazine. He's a founder and director of the publisher Possible Press.
Visions of Macbeth is not the very first exhibition of Markus Selg in Czech, following Der Übergang in Karel Tusch´s gallery Na bidýlku, Brno (2004) or full-scale "dramatic Gesamtkunstwerk" exhibitions composed together with the artist Astrid Sourkova Ketzer & Co. - Montage auf der Achse Brünn - Berlin, Dům umění, Brno (2006) and Heretic & Co. - The Golden City, Jiří Švestka Gallery, Prague (2007).
Markus Selg artworks are part of the collections of Karel Tusch and Wannieck Gallery among others.
Selected solo exhibitions: Die Hautung - Muskel der Menschheit II, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin (2009), Delphi - The human Rainbow, Daniel Hug, Los Angeles (2007), Traum der Sarazenin, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin (2007), PAX - Lektion in Frieden, Cabinet, London (2006), MolocH, Oldenburger Kunstverein (2006), Das Testament, Galerie Christian Nagel, Köln (2004), Muskel der Menschheit, Galerie Christine Mayer, München (2003), Weltausstellung, Kunstverein Braunschweig (2000).
Selected group exhibitions: Spuren der Sonne - Eine apokalyptische Oper / M. Selg, J. Kounellis, W. Herzog, b 05, Montabaur (2009), Heaven, 2nd Athens Biennal (2009); Der Müde Tod - oder der Gang über die ekstatische Treppe, KAI10 - Raum für Kunst, Düsseldorf (2009); Ciclo Kenneth Anger, Galeria Zé dos Bois, Lisbon (2009), Vertrautes Terrain - Aktuelle Kunst in & über Deutschland, ZKM, Karlsruhe (2008), Imagination Becomes Reality, ZKM, Karlsruhe and Sammlung Goetz, München (2007/2006), Thetrouble with fantasy, Kunsthalle Nürnberg (2005), deutschemalereizweitausenddrei, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003), Offene Haare, Offene Pferde - Amerikanische Kunst 1933-45, Kölnischer Kunstverein (2002).