Reinhard Mucha „Die Verwandlung“ „The Metamorphosis“, 2016
19.06.2018 from 18:00 to 19:30
Reinhard Mucha
„Die Verwandlung,“ 2016 “The Metamorphosis”
Encounter with the artist in conversation with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev
and presentation of the work
Tuesday, June 19, 6 pm
Castello di Rivoli, Room 19
On Tuesday, June 19 at 6 pm the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea will hold an encounter with Reinhard Mucha (Düsseldorf, 1950), in conversation with Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Director of the Museum, for the installation of „Die Verwandlung,“ 2016 “The Metamorphosis.” The work integrates the imposing installation Mutterseelenallein (Solitudine), 1989–2009, one of the German artist’s masterpieces, on view on the second floor of the Museum; the work became part of the Permanent Collection in 2009 thanks to the Fondazione CRT per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea.
The German artist Reinhard Mucha (Düsseldorf, 1950) is one of Europe’s most influential artists from the second half of the twentieth century. Active in Düsseldorf, where he studied at the Academy, Mucha began his career in the mid-1980s with a kind of sculpture alluding to architecture and focusing on the empty and obsolete spaces of the industrial world—indirectly referencing a modernity characterized in the twentieth century by social and political catastrophes. Mucha sheds light, on the one hand, on a sense of loss and mourning with respect to the optimism of the grand modern project and, on the other hand, the need to rediscover, through art, forms of respect for the work of that same modern industrial society, perceived by the artist in all its contradictions.
„Die Verwandlung,“ 2016 “The Metamorphosis” is a model-sculpture that references the installation Mutterseelenallein. As is the practice of the artist, who is interested in the idea of “showing the show,” the model represents a further analysis of the mechanisms related to presenting and displaying an artwork in a museum.
„Die Verwandlung,“ 2016 “The Metamorphosis” integrates and completes Mutterseelenallein. By joining the words “mother,” “soul,” and “solo,” the German title of the installation Mutterseelenallein is an expression that indicates a specific state of mind relating to extreme, desolate solitude. Installed for the first time in Naples in 1989, the work is composed of sixteen large cases in felt, metal, and glass that bear photographs of empty chairs. The cases alternate with neon ceiling lights. At the center of the room we find piles of old parquet flooring with more ceiling lights and electric cables. These elements, which are normally used in mounting art exhibitions, are, for the artist, an integral part of the work’s materials.
Inspired by old railway signs, the cases evoke a past of great industrial fervor and, at the same time, a feeling of immobility, typical of museum display cases. Mucha uses them while stressing the weight and drama of modern history—its projects but also its demise. In Mutterseelenallein, at the center of all the display cases, except one, we find a black-and-white photo of an empty chair. All different, the seats are the ones used by custodians or tired visitors to a small art exhibition in Düsseldorf, visited and photographed by the artist the day before it closed. The chairs suggest a big and profound emptiness, the solitude of each individual, while celebrating the poetry of expectation.
Like living organisms, Mucha’s works grow and change, marking the time of their own display experience: after the show in Naples, at the Galleria Lia Rumma, Mutterseelenallein was installed for many years at the Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt. If in Frankfurt the work already bore ceiling lights that were part of the gallery furnishings in Naples, for the event in Rivoli in 2009, Mucha also added the parquet piles, taking from the German museum parts of the installation walls, which evoked the floor of that museum. For the work at Rivoli, also in 2009, Mucha placed resin walls behind the cases, asking for them to be made by the same artisans who had crafted the museum floors.
“Presenting „Die Verwandlung,“ 2016 “The Metamorphosis” today, in 2018, in the context of Mutterseelenallein, Mucha has realized a long-imagined project,” states Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev. “The artist reminds us that works of art don’t exist out of time but rather mark time through their transformations, marking as a consequence our time. The work is a constant ‘unfinished’ and each element may be followed by others.”
Reinhard Mucha’s work, „Die Verwandlung,“ 2016 “The Metamorphosis” was donated to the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea by Marco Rossi.
REINHARD MUCHA
(Düsseldorf, 1950)
„Die Verwandlung“, 2016
“The Metamorphosis”
4 LCD monitors, 4 monitor supports, single-channel animated video loop with recordings of the sounds at Macy’s New York, 4 multimedia player, 4 SD cards, CF reader (sound), Netgear switch, electrical and electronic equipment, cable reel, different kinds of wood (found objects), block board, plywood, hard panels, aluminum edging, fluorescent light lamps, fluorescent tubes, Perspex, foot rest (found object), 16 empty chocolate boxes, felt
variable dimensions
Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino
Gift of Marco Rossi, Turin
Mutterseelenallein (Solitudine / All Alone), 1979 [1989] [1991] [2009]
unassembled wall panels, wood, cork, felt, fluorescent light lamps, electric cable, ground wire, electrical clamps, retractable extension cord, aluminum, glass, enamel painting on back of glass, silver gelatin-bromide prints, print on cut cardboard, Sintocret flooring with epoxy resin and ceramic quartz.
overall dimensions 583 x 982 x 741 cm
Fondazione per l’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea CRT, 2007
On gratuitous loan to the Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Torino
Biography
Reinhard Mucha (Düsseldorf, 1950) is seen as one of the greatest artists from the second-half of the twentieth century and represented Germany at the 1990 Venice Biennale.
Mucha began his career as an artist at the Academy in Düsseldorf in the late 1970s. He has displayed his work on a regular basis in major group shows like The European Iceberg, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Paris Biennale (1985), Zeitlos, Hamburger Bahnhof (1988), Venice Biennale (1990), Carnegie International, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (1991), Documenta IX, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel (1992), Documenta X, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel (1997), Wounds. Between Democracy and Redemption in Contemporary Art, Moderna Museet, Stockholm (1998), Liverpool Biennale (1999), Seeing Time, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe (2000), Around 1984. A Look at Art in the Eighties, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center/A MoMA Affiliate, Long Island-New York (2000). Solo exhibitions have been held at museums like Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (1985), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1986), Basel Kunsthalle and Bern Kunsthalle (1987), Museum Haus Esters, Krefeld (1990), Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt (1991).
Mucha’s works can be found in the most prestigious private and public collections around the world.