Markus Selg at Galerie Guido W. Baudach

Artist: Markus Selg

Exhibition title: The Cosmic Stage

Venue: Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin, Germany

Date: September 15 – October 28, 2017

Photography: Roman März, all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin

Imagine you have the possibility of being part of a theatre play which condenses very sharply and very fastly the idea of you – intended as unique thinking subjectivity; and the idea of otherness – intended as people, nature, ecology, the cosmos, the whole universe. In this performance you are not only a spectator, you are also an active participant, forming and morphing whilst wandering – as in Jorge Luis Borges’ Library of Babel – through different organised sets of knowledge and physical environments. The experience can be transformative, a gateway to another dimension, changing permanently your understanding of reality, its positive and negative spaces, conscious and unconscious, showing what is visible and invisible. Myth and memories are overlayed into dense patterns until they blend, meshing into one.

The narrative might unfold through various acts and takes place on a stage, a Cosmic Stage. The fullness of this experience might be best described as a journey fragmented in different stations, leading the fortunate traveller from chaos into clarity. Shamanism, mysticism and alchemy are mixed with uncanny symbols, futuristic imagery and psychedelic style blend to produce a unique filmgoing feeling. Many cathartic journeys come to mind: Ulysses’ wanders or Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia, unfolding from Hell to Paradise, or the alchemic transformation envisioned by Carl G. Jung in the individuation process. Each act has a scripted beginning and an end, thoughtfully positioned one after the other, guiding you in the transformation process. A sound will appear at each end, a sign of passage to the next act. The characters you’ll encounter are hybrid and archetypal, divine messengers of truth, their meaningfulness defined through juxtaposition. Imagine the duration of the whole experience could be infinite or very short, time has blended and your body aches. You are not sure if it was real or virtual, digital or physical, if your feelings were induced or spontaneous. However, as soon as you open your eyes, and return to your body, you become aware, you’ve been dancing on a Cosmic Stage

The Cosmic Stage is a solo exhibition by artist Markus Selg. Selg’s visionary practice includes sculpture, performance, digital print, sound, film and multi-media installations. Selg’s interest lays in the collection and layering of images and objects, seeking to unify disparate histories, cultures and geographies. As a 3rd millennium explorer, Selg gathers through travelling and digital appropriation ancient myths and symbols, floating from voodoo rituality to shamanism, originating sci-fi environments, where the primitive is transformed through highly technological production into psychedelia and virtuality. Often withdrawing from classical theatre formats, Selg narratives are complex and pose philosophical questions about the relationship between technology and spirituality, individual consciousness and collective unconscious, archaic and contemporary, integrating through contrast fundamental dichotomies whilst posing contemporaneity into perspective. The Cosmic Stage operates as immersive and cathartic experience requiring an active and imaginative participation from the public.

-Attilia Fattori Franchini

Markus Selg, born 1974 in Singen, lives and works in Berlin. He has participated in numerous major solo and group exhibitions at home and abroad (selection): Art Basel Parcours, Basel (2017); Medea. Matrix (theatre production in collaboration with Susanne Kennedy), Ruhrtrienniale, Duisburg, (2016); Primitive Data, De Hallen Haarlem, Haarlem (2015); Bilder in der Zeit – Sammlung Goetz im Haus der Kunst, Haus der Kunst, München (2014); Topsy Turvy, de Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam (2012); Dystopia, CAPC musée d‘art contemporain de Bordeaux (2011); Captain Pamphile #3. Ein Bildroman in Stücken, Sammlung Falckenberg, Hamburg-Harburg (2011); Spuren der Sonne – Eine apokalyptische Oper (Markus Selg, Jannis Kounellis, Werner Herzog), b-05, Montabaur (2009); HEAVEN, 2nd Athens Biennale (2009); Der Müde Tod, oder der Gang über die ekstatische Treppe, KAI 10 I Raum für Kunst, Düsseldorf (2009); Vertrautes Terrain, Aktuelle Kunst in & über Deutschland, ZKM, Karlsruhe (2008); Imagination Becomes Reality. Part IV: Borrowed Images, ZKM, Karlsruhe; MolocH, Oldenburger Kunstverein (2006); trouble with fantasy, Kunsthalle Nürnberg (2005); deutschemalereizweitausenddrei, Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003).

Markus Selg, The Cosmic Stage, 2017, exhibition view, Galerie Guido W. Baudach, Berlin

Markus Selg, BELL, 2017, HD, loop, 0:33 min

Markus Selg, Chrysalis (Interspace I), 2017, Wood, cotton wool, sublimation print on fabric, 113 x 75 x 43 cm

Markus Selg, encrypted body, 2017, Metal, stone, sublimation print, fabric, LED light, plastic, 210 x 85 x 70 cm

Markus Selg, Future Body (The Cosmic Stage), 2017, Metal, sublimation print on fabric, plastic, 245 x 85 x 90 cm

Markus Selg, HAWK, 2017, HD, loop, 0:24 min

Markus Selg, MOOD, 2017, HD, loop, 0:22 min

Markus Selg, The Dance (Ultraworld I), 2017, Metal, sublimation print on fabric, plastic, 280 x 270 x 100 cm

Markus Selg, The Dance (Ultraworld II), 2017, Metal, sublimation print on fabric, plastic, 280 x 270 x 100 cm

Markus Selg, The Dance (Ultraworld III), 2017, Metal, sublimation print on fabric, plastic, 280 x 270 x 100 cm

Markus Selg, Time Shift (410 million years), 2017, Oildrum, metal, plaster, plastic, synthetic wool, copper, lead, crystal, trilobite (calymene), butterfly, 90 x 50 x 50 cm

Markus Selg, When I close my eyes I see the universe, 2017, HD, loop, 18:57 min, sound