MELVIN MOTI – THE COSMIC COMMUNITY September 8 – October 21, 2012

Artist Statement

The result of two years preparatory work, the project The Inner Self in Outer Space consists of two films Eigengrau (35mm film, 26 minutes, 2011) and Eigenlicht (35mm film, 18 minutes, 2012) and two artist books. Eigengrau ("intrinsic ") and Eigenlicht ("intrinsic ") refer to the grey visual noise seen by the eye in perfect darkness. Even in the absence of light, some action potentials are sent along the optic nerve, causing the “sensation” of a uniform dark grey colour.

The idea of how the eye can create images on its own, in an ‘intrinsic’ way, so to speak, without any external influence, served as a model for the examination of the way the Victoria and Albert Museum in London presents certain parts of its collection so that the exhibited objects produce meaning on their own terms, devoid of their respective social and historical contexts.

The Victoria and Albert Museum started as a collection devoted to design classics from around the world. It was primarily developed after The Great Exhibition, which took place in the Crystal Palace in London in 1851. The Great Exhibition, much like the V & A today, was a showcase of material grandeur. Its organization and installation was predicated upon an encyclopaedic desire to chart global developments in industrial design and handcrafts, while simultaneously setting up a primary index of taste. The straightforward capitalist objective of seducing future consumers to invest in British industrial design by introducing a broad audience to refined objects shows the extent to which the museum’s history is embedded in consumer culture.

Over the course of a century, the V & A has developed a number of provocative positions that have been frequently criticised. Since the 1920s, the museum has maintained its position, proclaiming that a museum “is not a storybook, it is a glorified warehouse”, and furthermore, it is “not a social history museum. Historical arrangements (i.e. chronological display) presuppose a sheer misuse of art to rescue it for the service of history. Education by way of object-lesson (i.e. the historical approach) is a form of teaching so elementary as to be out of place in a museum, it belongs in the kindergarten”. Indeed, the museum collection does not emphasize historical or political progress in a number of its departments. Instead, By giving a minimal amount of contextual information, the objects are left to communicate by and for themselves, primarily in an attempt to reveal their “inherent qualities”. Artworks are completely objectified here, posing questions regarding their own inner structure and logic. Devoid of any sense of an historic framework, the inherent trait of a certain technique or material lends the object its intrinsic value — an ‘into-the-body-experience’ of an object. MELVIN MOTI – THE COSMIC COMMUNITY September 8 – October 21, 2012

The lack of contextual information, along with the sheer size of the collection, makes it terribly difficult for any visitor to grasp the full extent of the museum’s exhibits. It makes the V & A the only institution that actually discourages visitors from engaging with its collection. Detached from imposed narratives, objects begin to drift away from any understanding through a historic, chronological or social framework. The minimalised contextual information turns the museum’s exhibits into free-floating, disconnected objects. In the absence of extensive informational and educational resources for their exhibitions and in the absence of a conventional vestibular vocabulary, this collection starts to float. This is a zero gravity museum.

The formal categorization based on the material of the objects turns the aesthetic eye of the beholder into a “geological” gaze, interested exclusively in surfaces, materials and techniques. History is reconstructed by peeling off the layers of surface-matter of objects, as is the case with newly discovered celestial bodies. Considering outer space a science museum, where celestial bodies become geological museum pieces contained in a vacuum of space, Eigengrau combines the hyper-materialistic, antique objects from the V&A collection with the tactility of celestial bodies from our solar system, travelling from the inner construction of each object (glass, wood, , etc.) into outer space. The film shows painted moons and decorative pieces following various orbits, captured in slow-paced images, and propels these man-made objects into an atmosphere of detachment and suspension, in a seemingly weightless disconnected from all points of reference.

Eigenlicht examines the purely visual characteristics of fluorescent minerals, which absorb UV light and transform this invisible light into visible colours. Each mineral identifies itself by its individual colour, thus communicating to us about their composition and making it possible to trace their history by using strictly formal tools. Moti has included Uranium, which emits a poisonous , to draw the line between a purely visual object and its undeniably loaded cultural context. The film endeavours to release the stored energy of these rocks, transmitting it to the viewer.

Both Eigengrau and i completely forego digital technology and emphasise the tactile, hand-crafted skill of the large-scale cinematographic science-fiction productions of the 1970s. Both films are also accompanied by a limited-edition artist book. Eigengrau presents an experimental essay written by the artist, while Eigenlicht presents an essay by Akira Mizuta Lipitt who reinvents his biography through the material history of Uranium. The artist books are available from Glasmoog for the duration of the exhibition.

MELVIN MOTI – THE COSMIC COMMUNITY September 8 – October 21, 2012

Opening: Friday, September 7, 2012 at 6 pm, on the occasion of the gallery weekend dc-open.de Artist talk with Melvin Moti: Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Exhibition venue: !Glasmoog, Filzengraben 2, 50676 Cologne, http://glasmoog.khm.de ! Opening hours: Thursday / Friday, 4–7 pm, Saturday 2–6 pm. The screenings start on the hour in an hourly rotation.

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