For Berlin Art Week 2018, Galerie Michael Janssen is pleased to announce Regina Maria Möller’s solo exhibition, The Moth.
At the core of Regina Maria Möller’s practice, the aspects of performance and physicality are intertwined with pointed questions about the materials and processes from which her work is made. In this way, the viewers’ interactions with the work play a constant, crucial role—one which does not dissolve in distanced observation, but rather accentuates, to a greater extent, multisensory perception and—even more emphatically—an awareness of one’s self-restraint.
For this exhibition, Möller continues to weave these components together by creating a theatrical play through a series of curtains that incorporate the entire gallery space—a structure that continuously produces new vantage points and realms of experience.
Thus, the viewers’ otherwise penetrating gaze through the gallery’s welcoming display window is initially blocked by a heavy theater curtain. To see what is located behind it, one must enter the gallery. Inside, more curtains create further intrigue, producing a game in which the installation comes to address aspects of both illusion and Brechtian theater space.
The eponymous motif of the moth is situated in this context in various places, and its appearance oscillates from the public space of the street (as a curtain appliqué), to the interior of the gallery (as porcelain paintings), and even further to the semi-public space of the internet (as QR codes). In the latter case, the artist will present, on the occasion of this exhibition, and by digital means, vases featuring moth motifs produced in collaboration with the Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg and Uli Aigner ONE MILLION.
With the transferal of these objects into a virtual space comes a fresh continuation of Möller’s theatrical themes. For here, too, the oscillations between presence and absence, together with the alternations between watching and performing, emerge. The artist produces yet another setting that itself behaves as a commentary on the various spatial situations constructed in the gallery, i.e. the curtains and the “prop room” located at the back of the gallery.
Light plays a significant role for Möller in all of these spatial configurations as well. Like that oft cited relationship unique to the circling moth and the flame, so too does light activate for Möller an intense dynamic comprised of interaction and proximity. In The Moth, it is a dynamic that is shaped by the processes of opening, closing, and disrupting the curtains.
Theatrically staged by the formal conditions of the installation, visitors continuously discover new ways of perceiving others, their own bodies, and the exhibited objects. The experience becomes a playful viewing that is revealed in contrasting stages.
After completing her MA studies at the LMU Munich in the Faculty of Philosophy, Möller lived for several years in New York City, where she began her artistic career. During this time, she developed the concept for her highly regarded project, regina—an artwork in magazine format that is published at irregular intervals and in limited editions. In 1994, she began developing the artist label embodiment. Within this frame, Möller produces works that essentially engage with the relationship of the body and space as well as transitions between art, design, and everyday culture. Her artistic practice encompasses a wide range of media, from installations, photography, and video to sculpture, costume design, and interventions in public space. Since 2003, Möller has also taught as a professor or visiting professor at numerous institutions, including MIT Cambridge, the Trondheim Academy of Fine Art, and NTUSingapore.
Regina Maria Möller: b. in Munich, Germany. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Solo exhibitions / Projects (selection): 2016: The Lab, NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore (SG); 2015: Trøndelag Centre for Contemporary Art, Trondheim (NO); 2014: LevArt, Levanger (NO); 2007: FRAC des Pays de la Loire, Carquefou (FR); 2004: Secession Wien, Vienna (AU); 2000: Moderna Museet Projekt, Stockholm (SE). Group exhibitions (selection): 2017: Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (AU); 2015: Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna (AU); 2013: Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilly, León (ES); 2008: Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hannover (DE); 2004: 3. Berlin Biennial, Berlin (DE); 1996: Manifesta 1, Rotterdam (NL); 1995: Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels (BE); 1994: Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (DE); 1993: 45. Venice Biennale, Venice (IT).
