Red Wine. The artist has spent a prolonged time in Munich in order to develop his work especially for this show, which will include an installation of deer skulls together with a new series of 'multi-sensory' paintings, and giclee prints on canvas.
For Nicolas Ceccaldi’s first exhibition in a public art institution, the artist has planned an entirely new body of work for Kunstverein München’s four interlocking gallery spaces. Ceccaldi has spent a prolonged time in Munich in order to develop his work especially for this show, which will include an installation of deer skulls together with a new series of ‘multi-sensory’ paintings, and giclée prints on canvas.
As a starting point for his exhibition, Ceccaldi has designed a poster to augment his choice of the title, ‘Red Wine’. Featuring a ghostly cropped and digitally distorted image of a figure with an outstretched hand offering a red pharmaceutical pill, the combination of title and image puts forth an inchoate yet intriguing analogy to be expanded upon thematically and formally in the exhibition. The symbolism of the 'red pill' has been widely popularised by the 1999 film The Matrix, specifically relating to a key scene in which the film’s protagonist is offered the choice of either a red or blue capsule. While the latter would allow a user to remain in the fabricated virtual world of the Matrix, the red pill would return him or her to physical ‘reality’; one where humans are enslaved by machines. ‘Red pill’ has also become a phrase commonly used amongst cyber cultures online to express a lucid, freethinking attitude. While this image represents enlightened access to what’s perceived as actually real, the textual insinuation of ‘Red Wine’ on the other hand suggests intoxication as a way to temporarily escape reality.
Events Program
Sunday 27 April 2014 3.00pm
‘Meet and Greet’ with Nicolas Ceccaldi
Tuesday 29 April 2014 7.00pm
Guided tour with Director Bart van der Heide
Thursday 22 May 2014 7.00pm
Guided tour with Curator Saim Demircan (in English)
Tuesday, 27 May 2014 7.00pm
Response to the exhibition by Susanne Pfeffer, Director of the Fridericianum, Kassel
Press
Anja Lückenkemper
Assistent Curator and Press presse@kunstverein-muenchen.de
Opening Friday 25 April 2014, 7.00pm. The opening will be followed by an afterparty organised by Kyselina TM with DJ-Sets from DJ HVAD, WHY BE and LOTIC.
Kunstverein München
Galeriestraße 4 - 80539 Munich
Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am - 6 pm