Artist interview; Lilli Muller
Lilli Muller
Berlin born artist, currently resident in L.A.
Her project in Venice;
WE ARE HUMANITY!
A Collective Meditation on Humanity, in response to the global diaspora and displacement of millions of people every day
An Immersive Installation, works on paper, videos of the Mandala Project Series by Lilli Muller and footage from sea-eye.org video as part of the project “Take Care of Your Garden” curated and organized by GAD
Location: Giudecca Arts District – GAD, Project Space 2, Giudecca 211-c, 30133 Venezia /Italy
Daily Operations: Tuesday – Sunday: 10am - 6pm
Dates: June 21- Aug 11, 2019
“Leap and the net will appear!”
sea-eye.org Video
"The Mandala Project Desert: Collateral Damage" Video
"The Mandala Project: Venice" Video
I met Lilli at the Giudecca Art District, Venice, in August, where she exhibited for the first 3 months of the Biennale. Unlike most artists at the biennale, Lilli refused to surrender her work to the hands of invigilators, insisting that "this kind of work needs to be supported and discussed, in order to truly the audience". She therefore stayed herself for the all duration of her exhibition and welcomed visitors daily in her venue. Lilli explained how she feels the need to balance her work between direct physical engagement with the public when she 'collects body parts' through casting the volunteers who generously 'donate' their body shape to art. ' I get people together in my studio and everybody gets naked'. This kind of actions, she explains, needs to be handled very carefully; it is a highly sensitive context which needs to be facilitated with extreme care.
Lilli's relational qualities are applied directly into the work she fabricates. the body becomes a conversation, a form of collective physical meditation on our human condition as flesh, bones, body parts which become entangled through participation in the work and through life as a whole.
in 'We are Humanity' Lilli wished to raise awareness of what it truly means to become a refugee. A sense of displacement, here portrayed through the clothes laying on the floor as traces bodies and life. The theme caught my eye as echoing my past work in the Laboratory of Dissent, 2015 .(http://laurencerushby-events.blogspot.com/2015/10/domesticating-conflicts_5.html
I seized the opportunity of a short afternoon conversation to invite her for interview.
Around an informal evening drink, Lilli casually reveals that she has been one of Louise Bourgeois's mentee for over 15 years, an experience which transformed her way of thinking about her art and got her to consider how what truly mattered to her was to engage with people.
Her generosity and contagious energy sparked a new directions in my time in Venice; as Lilli said so vividly, "Venice is magical, not because of Venice but because of what you make of it before and after Venice."
I began the blog before taking my journey, addressing to the world a message for a change to come.
As I am writing this report more than a month after my return, I am drawn to reflect on what it may fully mean to me.
How will Venice impact on my future practice?
How will the experience permeate into a new form for my practice?
Who will I be after Venice? What kind of artist? What kind of human? In what kind of humanity?
Berlin born artist, currently resident in L.A.
Her project in Venice;
WE ARE HUMANITY!
A Collective Meditation on Humanity, in response to the global diaspora and displacement of millions of people every day
An Immersive Installation, works on paper, videos of the Mandala Project Series by Lilli Muller and footage from sea-eye.org video as part of the project “Take Care of Your Garden” curated and organized by GAD
Location: Giudecca Arts District – GAD, Project Space 2, Giudecca 211-c, 30133 Venezia /Italy
Daily Operations: Tuesday – Sunday: 10am - 6pm
Dates: June 21- Aug 11, 2019
“Leap and the net will appear!”
sea-eye.org Video
"The Mandala Project Desert: Collateral Damage" Video
"The Mandala Project: Venice" Video
I met Lilli at the Giudecca Art District, Venice, in August, where she exhibited for the first 3 months of the Biennale. Unlike most artists at the biennale, Lilli refused to surrender her work to the hands of invigilators, insisting that "this kind of work needs to be supported and discussed, in order to truly the audience". She therefore stayed herself for the all duration of her exhibition and welcomed visitors daily in her venue. Lilli explained how she feels the need to balance her work between direct physical engagement with the public when she 'collects body parts' through casting the volunteers who generously 'donate' their body shape to art. ' I get people together in my studio and everybody gets naked'. This kind of actions, she explains, needs to be handled very carefully; it is a highly sensitive context which needs to be facilitated with extreme care.
Lilli's relational qualities are applied directly into the work she fabricates. the body becomes a conversation, a form of collective physical meditation on our human condition as flesh, bones, body parts which become entangled through participation in the work and through life as a whole.
in 'We are Humanity' Lilli wished to raise awareness of what it truly means to become a refugee. A sense of displacement, here portrayed through the clothes laying on the floor as traces bodies and life. The theme caught my eye as echoing my past work in the Laboratory of Dissent, 2015 .(http://laurencerushby-events.blogspot.com/2015/10/domesticating-conflicts_5.html
I seized the opportunity of a short afternoon conversation to invite her for interview.
Around an informal evening drink, Lilli casually reveals that she has been one of Louise Bourgeois's mentee for over 15 years, an experience which transformed her way of thinking about her art and got her to consider how what truly mattered to her was to engage with people.
Her generosity and contagious energy sparked a new directions in my time in Venice; as Lilli said so vividly, "Venice is magical, not because of Venice but because of what you make of it before and after Venice."
I began the blog before taking my journey, addressing to the world a message for a change to come.
As I am writing this report more than a month after my return, I am drawn to reflect on what it may fully mean to me.
How will Venice impact on my future practice?
How will the experience permeate into a new form for my practice?
Who will I be after Venice? What kind of artist? What kind of human? In what kind of humanity?
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