Paul Valentin at Galerie Britta Rettberg

Artist: Paul Valentin

Exhibition title: Another Room

Venue: Galerie Britta Rettberg, Park, Munich, Germany

Date: September 10 – October 22, 2022

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Galerie Britta Rettberg, Munich

The digital animations of Paul Valentin (*1990 Munich) are based on simulation, software and computers as well, with which he wants to show us nothing less than the construction of so-called reality. In A Piano Plays In Another Room And It’s Raining (2022), the artist takes us into a melancholy fugue of computer-generated spaces that overwhelm us with their abundance of references to film, painting, and computer games, as well as the carefully designed “digital objects”, leaving us initially speechless. The aesthetics of this work, which oscillates between cinematic philosophy and spatial installation, refers to the design of so-called “liminal” spaces – transit spaces – that evoke feelings of eeriness, nostalgia, and anxiety in us. With each cut and each camera movement into a new space, we try to make sense of the surroundings, to identify with the viewer, and to generate meaning in the process. Inevitably, we lose the threads of plausible narratives in the process. What we see is not what we think we see, know, or understand. Each scene demands that we take different perspectives, jump between worlds and “realities,” abandon projections and allow for new possibilities. Ultimately, we understand that we are seeing our seeing itself here, contemplating the making of meaning, and pursuing the philosophical search for the nature of the world. A moment later, a new loop of the film begins, with a new version of the piano piece, in another room.

Paul Valentin, Another Room, 2022, exhibition view, Galerie Britta Rettberg, Park, Munich

Paul Valentin, Another Room, 2022, exhibition view, Galerie Britta Rettberg, Park, Munich

Paul Valentin, Another Room, 2022, exhibition view, Galerie Britta Rettberg, Park, Munich

Paul Valentin, Another Room, 2022, exhibition view, Galerie Britta Rettberg, Park, Munich

Paul Valentin, Another Room, 2022, exhibition view, Galerie Britta Rettberg, Park, Munich

Paul Valentin, Another Room, 2022, exhibition view, Galerie Britta Rettberg, Park, Munich