on view: Toni Meyer at Kunstverein München (Screening & spatial installation)
As part of the evening, Meyer will present a screening of her film »Grow (We flowers were here always)«, accompanied by a selection of photographic collages from the film. The work, composed of more than 150 individually produced still-image collages, extends beyond the screen into the exhibition space, where fragments of its visual world appear as autonomous pieces. Inspired by art film classics such as Chris Marker’s La Jetée, the film unfolds entirely through still images. Its richly coloured visual world is contrasted with a dark futuristic vision and underscored by a futuristic, punk-inflected sound design by Chris Xiao. The film was developed within the framework of the »Junge Kunst und Neue Wege« scholarship programme of the Bavarian State Ministry for Science and the Arts.
Will companies soon have the ability to place advertisements inside dreams? In »Grow«, people in the near future can only protect themselves from excessive “spam” in their minds by wearing helmets. The motif that drives the narrative – while also interrupting it like an advertising break – feels not far removed from today’s reality of personalised advertising and increasingly sophisticated targeting. Alongside this inevitable digital surveillance, people are confronted with a second phenomenon: the reconquest of concrete-heavy cities by plants, referred to as the “Flower Revolution”. Vegetation begins to overgrow and reclaim the streets, houses, and subway stations built by humans. All attempts to stop nature prove futile, and the manipulative institution known as the “Dream Agency” seeks to involve citizens in the fight against the spreading plants. Who will ultimately prove to be more clever? Just this much: We flowers were here always.
Opening
Join us for the Screening on May 13 at 8 PM.
Kunstverein München
Galeriestraße 4, 80539 Munich
Film Credits:
A film by Toni Meyer
Cast: Anna Zoë Mai, Bayi Jessica Amoussou, Philip Froissant, Ana Saraiva
Music / Sound Design: Chris Xiao
Narrated by: Lee Blosso
About the series: Since 2012, the Munich-based series »Meine drei lyrischen Ichs« has presented three times a year three poets among the most compelling new voices in contemporary poetry in the German-speaking world. Literature enters into dialogue with visual art and performance: for each edition, an artist activates and transforms the space. In this edition, Toni Meyer extends the format through a screening and spatial installation of fragments from her film »Grow«, creating a layered interplay between cinematic narration, poetic reading, and exhibition space.
