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5/9/2002

Christoph Draeger

mullerdechiara, Berlin

Black September

The opening of Christoph Draeger's first solo exhibition in Berlin on September 5th falls 30 years to the day after the 1972 abduction and murder of eleven members of the Isreali olympic team by Palastinian terrorists during the XXth Olympiad in Munich. And the world will also observe the one-year anniversary of last year's September 11th terrorist actions in New York during the first week of the exhibition. These were two events in September, within the span of one generation, which brutally rendered dramatic and enduring changes upon our world. One is nearly forgotten, the other we have barely begun to process.

Draeger's installation at mullerdechiara, entitled Black September,' (name of the Palastinian terrorist group of 1972) will present a partial fictional presentation of the sequence of events as they occured in the besieged room. The unfolding of these events in Munich, a nearly forgotten early climax in global terrorism, was an absurd spectacle encased within the theatrical set of the Olympic games. Even as the seige was drawn out, the olympic community attempted to present a facade of desparate, feigned normality. Moreover, as the German Democratic Republic television broadcast live the preparations for an overthrow attempt dubbed Operation Sunshine,' the terrorists as well as the hostages were able to view up-to-the-minute reports on every step of the sophomoric police action on the television set inside the apartment where the hostages were being held. Draeger's installation will include reworked exerpts from the contemporary TV coverage, visible from within a reconstruction of the room itself. Fact and fiction are mingled and so are past and present, as the line between live and documentary, between observer and participant, are blurred.

The distance in time allows for a fictional element, the myth has replaced the news. But thirty years later the same adversaries are still standing bitterly across from eachother. Looking to address not just this condition but perhaps also its roots, Draeger goes on to ask, in this September, if the globalization of the image and the globalization of terrorism are not just coincidentally congruent; and asserts that violence and its simultaneous widespread illustration have always gone hand in hand.

Disaster and violence are subjects Draeger has been exploring for the last decade. He has visited the aftermath of numerous disaster sites around the world such as plane crashes, explosions, terrorist attacks or crime scenes - and reserached them throughly. This obsession with destruction, its unpredictable nature and the voyeuristic fascination it inspires has resulted in various projects he has created. He lifts from new reels, home videos and Hollywood films splicing them together to recreate his own interpretation of the event. He plays with fiction and reality to evoke the emotional impact of these events.

Christoph Draeger lives and works both in Switzerland and New York City. He has shown extensively throughout Europe and the States. He has an upcoming solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Fri-Art, Fribourg, and will be included in the Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, cine y casi cine, Museum Reina Sofia, Madrid, Intimate, Paco des Artes, Sao Paolo, and Remakes, capc-Musée d'art contemporain, Bordeaux. Some of his recent group exhibitions include Artists' Games, Public's Games, Kunstverein Ulm, New York after New York, Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, Beaufort 12-Au bord du désastre, Expo 02, Neuchatel, Highlights from the Permanent Collection, Whitney Museum of American Art New York, Brooklyn!, PBICA, Institut of Contemporary Art, Palm Beach, and Impakt Festivall.

tue-sat 12-7pm

For further questions please contact Sonke Magnus Muller or Anne Schmedding at +49-30-39032040.

mullerdechiara
Weydingerstrasse 10
10178 Berlin
phone +49-30-390320-40
fax +49-30-390320-44

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