Martin Eder at Tick Tack

Artist: Martin Eder

Exhibition title: KARMAGEDDON

Venue: Tick Tack, Antwerp, Belgium

Date: May 19 – July 8, 2023

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Tick Tack, Antwerp

TICK TACK presents KARMAGEDDON, a site-specific solo exhibition by Martin Eder (Germany, 1968). The show opens with a live performance on May 19th and will remain on view until July 8th at Mechelsesteenweg 247, Antwerpen.

KARMAGEDDON is a visually stunning exploration of the brutality and ruthlessness of our times, where people are constantly under the hypnosis of social media and its “fast dopamine” culture. In a world where images are produced at an unprecedented rate, Eder questions the role and place of painting in modern society, where hanging an image on a wall for an indefinite period seems almost anachronistic. The show challenges the viewer to examine the unconscious process of consuming beautiful content without truly experiencing it, highlighting the discrepancy between digital entertainment and analog pleasure.

The exhibition’s title, KARMAGEDDON, is a playful reference to karma and fate, as well as the desire for self-improvement and the esoteric industry that surrounds it. Eder’s striking collages, made up of overlapped images from his personal cosmos, create a mesmerizing and almost overwhelming backdrop to his paintings. With this technique, Eder sabotages the classic visual language, encouraging the viewer to question their own perception of reality.

The basement ceremony, Eder’s first performance in over 6 years, offers the viewer a cathartic experience, which will have the opposite effect of a meditation: filling your mind to the most flamboyant extent and erasing unwanted content and mental trash due to social media. This 15-minute dark and ritualistic happening, featuring a character embodying the concept of masks and the different personalities we adopt, is an extension of the exhibition’s research of visual poetry in a modern world.

On CINEMA TICK TACK, Martin Eder presents HYPOTHALAMOVS, a selection of fast moving internet trash-videos curated together with TICK TACK. This seemingly endless reel imitates the careless doomsday scrolling one experiences on TikTok or Instagram during an unsatisfiable quest for quick dopamine.

The in-situ presentation, seamlessly incorporated in TICK TACK’s protected architecture, exudes a sense of mysticism and madness and transforms KARMAGEDDON into a game for the viewer to grasp the artist’s rhythm and language. However, even as the images overlap and leave you feeling vulnerable, the alchemical nature of chaos can also reveal its most beautiful secrets and have a transformative or even healing power.

Martin Eder is a German artist known for his captivating and often surreal paintings that explore the intersection of beauty and darkness. Born in 1968, Eder studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts before embarking on his artistic career. Eder’s ability to capture the complexity and contradictions of the human experience has earned him international acclaim, with his works being exhibited in galleries and museums around the world and included in various collections (MOMA New York + California, Kunsthal Rotterdam, ARKEN Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; Newport Street Gallery, London; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden among others). He continues to create thought-provoking and visually stunning art that challenges viewers to see beyond the surface and into the deeper complexities of the world around us.

TICK TACK (opened in may, 2019) is a destination for contemporary art in Antwerp. TT produces, presents and promotes international exhibitions and video art screenings, complemented by limited edition publications and an extensive digital archive.