Thomas Moecker combines various elements into a stage-like ensemble with the inclusion of components from architecture and interiors. Ideas about casinos, traveling theaters, carnivals, stalls, or vaudeville intermingle. The central element of the installation /Revue/ is a stage assembled from planks whose back board represents a schematic teddy bear abstracted to its basic form.
In his /Revue/, Thomas Moecker combines various elements into a
stage-like ensemble with the inclusion of components from architecture
and interiors. Ideas about casinos, traveling theaters, carnivals,
stalls, or vaudeville intermingle. Virtually, the artist also 'lets the
Revue happen': The past is reviewed and reconstructed. We are not
confronted with petty solemnity but its forms of expression. Everything
sparkles, but what we see is only a reflection.
Without embracing
palpable chains of association, a flexible framework of representation
beyond hegemonic cultural molding develops for an all-encompassing
perception of conflicts -- a commanding substratum of sentiments. On the
one hand, the "Kriegstheater" (theater of war) serves as a starting
point for the formal preoccupation with the element of the stage. On the
other hand, the construction of theaters of war conveys a fundamental
insight into Moecker's artistic work. In fact, the subject of warlike
operations itself is less important than the resulting unearthing of truths.
The central element of the installation /Revue/ is a stage assembled
from planks whose back board represents a schematic teddy bear
abstracted to its basic form. As a stylized figure of innocence und
protection the cute bear certainly lives up to its function. However,
the functional stylizations turn upon themselves with excessive, absurd
glee; grief and melancholy arise, yearnings are no longer satisfied, and
the abysmal and ruinous surface.
Standards, trophies, or victory monuments are often functional forms of
representation entrenching the supremacy and the parameters of cultural
efforts and achievements in societies of pretense. Thomas Moecker
modifies these and further forms of representation and transfers them
quote-like into more abstract forms and unmasks them as obsolete emblems
as instruments upholding ideologies. In the atmospheric space,
incorporating stage, carpets, curtains, skylights, sculptures, and
graphic art, mystification and the creation of legends come to an end.
Epochal ornaments are reconfigured into simple decors, classic forms are
highlighted and commented upon in fantastic new manifestations, scale
and commensurability are called into question.
Opening reception Friday, June 24, 2011, 7 pm
EMMANUEL POST
Windmühlenstraße 31b 04107 Leipzig
Hours: Wednesday - Saturday, 2 - 6 pm
free admission