Markus Oehlen at Galerie Hans Mayer at Art Cologne 2017

This video is a virtual tour of German artist Markus Oehlen’s installation at the booth of Hans Mayer Gallery at the international art fair Art Cologne 2017.

Markus Oehlen at Galerie Hans Mayer at Art Cologne 2017. Cologne (Germany), April 28, 2017.

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Interview with Hans Mayer about the Markus Oehlen installation at Art Cologne 2017 (transcript):

Hans Mayer:
This is the essence of Markus. He paints neon light through photography. He makes the neon light shine through film and photography. And so he now creates light boxes, all of which have a somewhat crazy message. He was in the hospital for six months because he had a bicycle accident and has been doing these computer studies for new pictures during these six months. Previously, artists had made drawings or small gouaches to prepare their new pictures, and he did that via the computer. About 900 pictures have been created, which he then used to staple them in his studio on the walls and see, which picture do I paint now, which picture do I do not paint. He has not painted any of them yet, but the background is there. Now, however, he makes the new sewn pictures, which he prints via the computer, where everything is very detailed, whether it is mirror images or light images or whatever, it always expresses a new message.

VernissageTV:
And the work on the computer he actually only discovered by the hospital stay?

Hans Mayer:
By the boredom he probably had in the hospital. If he had done it in the studio, he probably could have made only a tenth of it. There he had nothing to do, except to play with the computer. And the result is really very amazing and fascinating. And now he uses this to show his new pictures on the old pictures. And when someone buys the new image, he gets 50 of these prints, with all the data, so you can always print it again. He wants the pictures to be presented as they are shown here.

VernissageTV:
Have you designed this stand then?

Hans Mayer:
No, no, he always said there are many studies for the show here in Cologne and I would like to show them all. I say, how many, he, well, one hundred, I say, that is impossible, he, no, no, I already know how we do it. And then he says, it will be wallpapered, as artist always did, images presented on wallpapers designed by them, and so on. You have to call it wallpaper.

VernissageTV:
Could tell us a something about the artist’s career?

Hans Mayer:
Well, Markus Oehlen worked together with Kippenberger, his brother Albert, and Herold in the 80s, but then he got problems with drugs and alcohol. He then stopped with drugs and started to do art again 15 years ago. I would say that is now something of the most exciting works today. This installation is somehow a part of the exhibition, which I have just in my gallery at the Krabbeplatz in Cologne. And he always told me so, I do not really want to exhibit in a gallery or a museum, but I would like to take my studio to the gallery. The floor in the exhibition in the gallery is from his studio, a big light wall is there, a music box, table, chairs, so it is really a working atmosphere, which has emerged there. And that is what gives him pleasure, which inspires him and gives him new motivation.

Markus Oehlen at Galerie Hans Mayer at Art Cologne 2017. Cologne (Germany), April 27, 2017.

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