Mischa Kuball – platon’s mirror

Mischa Kuball
platon’s mirror
13 February – 3 April 2011

ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art
Lorenzstrasse 19
76135 Karlsruhe, Germany
phone: +49 (0) 721/8100 1200
info [​at​] zkm.de
www.zkm.de

Düsseldorf-based media artist Mischa Kuball is among the few artists who has consistently understood light’s (socio-)political dimensions and used the media accordingly in numerous works and installations. In his new exhibition project “platon’s mirror,” two additional aspects are included: a perception-aesthetics component, as well as the possibility of a novel type of image generation through computer tomography. This gives rise to highly topical issues within art, and for it. Within the project, light politics and media politics are re-negotiated.

The idea for “platon’s mirror” is based on one of the most influential stories within European literature: Plato’s cave allegory. In it, the philosopher draws a distinction between two forms of reality: the reality of the visible world and the (true) reality of ideas. For an artist such as Kuball, who deals like no other in his class with the phenomenon of light, the cave allegory necessarily became an artistic challenge. In simple and highly effective installations using projectors, silver foil, photographs and videos, Kuball creates spaces that can be considered analogous to the situation in Plato’s story about the cave. On the other hand, in his photographs and videos Kuball translates the complex relationships among light source, reflection, silhouettes, and representation into seemingly endless stages of mediation, within which reality is continually newly constituted as the reality of its reflection.

The exhibition taking place at ZKM, “Mischa Kuball. platon’s mirror” is the first stop in an international tour with a total of fifteen stations (in cooperation with the Goethe-Institute and artspace Sydney), including, among others, Berlin, Sydney, and Auckland. At ZKM, ca. fifty photos can be seen, as well as two video installations.

In summer 2011, parallel to the exhibition series, a reader designed by Christoph Keller will be published. It is edited by Andreas F. Beitin, Blair French, and Leonhard Emmerling and contains texts by Andreas F. Beitin, Hans Belting, Bazon Brock, Martina Dobbe, Leonhard Emmerling, Blair French, Ursula Frohne, Wulf Herzogenrath, Friedhelm Mennekes, Yukiko Shikata, Peter Sloterdijk, Wolfgang Ullrich, Bernhard Waldenfels, John Welchman, and Duncan White.

Curator: Andreas F. Beitin

For further information see also: www.mischakuball.com

ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
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Press contact:
ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
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