German Contemporary Art
SEE AND BE SEEN

Monica Bonvicini; lives and works in Berlin. Bonvicini is one of the most famous artists in German. One of the most interesting aspects of her work are the expressive formal discussions via site specific sculptures. Through the reflection on gender issues, often reinforced by biting humour, her work addresses the issues of ‘building’ in both architectural and social aspects.

She was the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions in museums and institutions; ' La Biennale di Venezia' (1999, 2009), New Museum, New York ; Museum of Modern Art, Oxford; Secession, Vienna (2003) Don't Miss a Sec, in front of London’s 'Tate Modern museum Migros Museum, Zurich; Sprengel Museum, Hanover (2004), Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach; Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin (2005) Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm; Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY (2007), The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago (2009). also Monica Bonvicini’s solo exhibition 'Bet Your Sweet Life' was in 2010 at Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin and 'She Lies' was commissioned by Public Art Norway.

Monica Bonvicini – ' She Lies'

Monica Bonvicini She Lies in Oslo.. She Lies is a monumental sculpture built out of stainless steel and glass panels that measure approximately 12 x 17 x 16 m. The piece is permanently installed and floats amidst the fjord on the water. By turning around its own axis in correspondence to the tides, the sculpture offers changing views through the reflections on the mirrored and semitransparent surfaces.

A crucial aspect of this commission is the challenge of the change expected in this location since the completion of the opera house. She Lies is meant to be a monument about change, longing and hope, a memorial for the construction itself. It stands for its implicit visions and the beauty of the un-done as a permanent state of change, “A Monument to a state of permanent change” said Monica Bonvicini ....

Monica Bonvicini 'The Public Toilet ' (Don't Miss a Sec).

Monica Bonvicini's 'The PublicToilet' in front of London’s 'Tate Modern museum', through the looking glass, It is impossible to see into the toilet, which will be free to use, but the person inside can see passers by, but takes quite a lot of courage to use it. Bonvicini, is a fully functional toilet. The stainless steel combined sink and lavatory - bought from a prison supplier - housed in a mirror glass cabinet has been installed in the building site opposite Tate Britain. From the outside it reflects the world; from the inside it is shockingly transparent.
Bonvicini said that 'there is a deeper message than just taking a dump in public, It relates to the urge, during big art events where so much is about “see and be seen,” to not miss anything'

.

JONATHAN MEESE
(Jonathan Meese self-portrait, 2007, 'Doing A Bad Boy Good')

Jonathan Meese; is a German painter, (born Tokyo) performance and installation artist based in Berlin and Hamburg.

Susanne Titz said, "It was thus clear that Meese had indeed put his finger on the pulse of his generation and presented it." Berlin-based artist Jonathan Meese held his own one-man protest in his own solo show in Chelsea. Meese's timely "occupation" of the Bortolami gallery was a mad, sake-fuelled rant whose purpose was to shock his bourgeois art-world audience.

Meese's work often draws on history, particularly that of his own country, and his performances cathartically "act out" Germany's dark past. He can often appear as a messianic prophet. Meese spoke of government at odds with the individual. "Democracy wants you to be afraid of everything," he said. "It wants to make you un-precise. . . Democracy wants you to feel free but you are not free. You think you are so free because the jail is so big. The jail is so big you don't even see the guards . . . you yourself is [sic] the guard and the victim at the same time."

Meese said ;“The donation of power will be the most celebrated thing, the day of the ultimate takeover will come.”

Jonathan Meese - TOTALZELBSTPORTRAIT.

The Hague’s museum for contemporary art, presents TOTALZELBSTPORTRAIT, a solo exhibition by German artist Jonathan Meese.

'Jonathan Meese has a clear vision of what art is. If you hear him talk or watch him perform, you either think he is brilliant or has completely lost his mind, but he seems to know what he’s doing. Meese, self-appointed “Meesias,” preaches the total dictatorship of art: it’s art's turn to rule the world after politics and religion. Art is an almighty dictator, with the artist as its subordinate and humble servant. Art doesn’t care if the artist is sick or dying and doesn’t care what the artist wants. According to Meese the only thing left for an artist to do, is to play and he loves doing just that. The whip of his dictator is Meese’s driving force, and as such he is a very productive artist, working in every medium he possibly can. The largest part of the GEM show consists of Meese’s “paintings,” brightly colored collages of paint, words, sentences, images, and objects. His works are childlike, primitive, energetic, and colorful, and his loose style reminds one of painters like Penck and Basquiat (or for a more recent example, Bjarne Melgaard). Unfortunately there are only two of Meese’s bronze sculptures in the show, which employ this same collage aesthetic, which in a sculptural form yields fascinating, playful results. On the lower floor there are some films and a huge installation. You can wander through it like you are inside one of Meese’s paintings and feel overwhelmed by his propaganda'.

Jonathan Meese (pic By me.)

The Dictatorship Of Art.

P.s Since 2006 Jonathan Meese has been making propaganda for the dictatorship of art. The party of this dictatorship is named art. Under the domination of art there will be no more mean domination of man. Total humbleness is the name of this new world order, which will be established on the day zero, after the takeover of art – which will be in fact a donation of power. The volcano will erupt, there is no alternative – no power of man, no creativity, no soul – only neutrality. Only “art” as “total leadership” is anti-nostalgic, revolutionary and loving. Soon there will be only one land in the world, named the land of erz (Erzland). Playing without rituals is the only possible way for artist and man to achieve the dictatorship of art.

Bjorn Mellhus

Bjorn Mellhus is a German-Norwegian media artist. Melhus works as a video artist for more than 15 years and is represented in some of the major private and public collections in the world, from Germany. for B. Mellhus life is both a dream and a fantasy. Melhus was born in Kirchheim-Teck. he studied creative art from 1988 to1997 at the HBK in Braunschweig. He has received a number of scholarships, including ones from the DAAD at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles and from the state of Niedersachsen at the ISCP in New York.
Bjørn Melhus lives in a media-driven culture, as an analyst, protagonist and – like us all – a consumer. In his work, unlike other artists, he deals with the stocktaking of media-cultural creations, such as film and television, and thereby scrutinizes the reciprocal relationships between the individual, the masses and the medium. A recurring motif is the double (Superhero), the reproduced individual who is always embodied by the artist himself.. Mellhus had solo & group shows in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Moscow, Madrid, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Berlin etc. Melhus has been a professor of fine arts and virtual realities since 2003 at the Kassel Art Academy. He lives and works in Berlin. Mellhus productivity dwell on issues of individuality and reflection of the self, this is less a discovery of the artist's own personality and more a sighting the rationale of the media and its impacts on our culture. In his work "The Oral Thing" from 2001, the artist treats the talk show format and the phenomenon of tele-evangelism and constructs a parody around them.

STILL MEN OUT THERE

Bjorn Mellhus exhibition "Still Men Out There" was at the American hospital Art Gallery "Operation Room", in 2008, this exhibition showing the intense and rich pre-production work in Bjørn Melhus’ films. the exhibition presents Melhus' works as "The Oral Thing", exhibition's name "Still Men Out There" and other significant works selected from his portfolio also includes his recent creation, the 2008, multi-channel video installation titled "Deadly Storms".

Bjorn Mellhus- Deadly Storms".

"Deadly Storms", which deals with the conditioning of man, instigated by the modern media also generates terrible consequences. In this work, the machine-like and persistent repetition of arresting slogans, ring alarm bells while at the same time underlining the absolute vacuity, if not the impossibility of meaning.

(Screensavers

by B. Melhus,

2008)

Melhus; I do not belong in this House

"Again & Again"

In performance "Again & Again" Melhus tells not without humorthe story of a person engaged in an inner dialogue on the subject of reproduction, only to be rejected by the clone whose qualities are superior to his own.