the european biennial of contemporary art
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artists

Christian Philipp Müller

1957, Biel, CH Lives in New York, US

Green Border, 1993 Mixed media installation, dimensions variable Carro Largo, 2008 Performance and Installation

ROVERETO

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Müller’s critical practice is preoccupied with mapping the institutional and geopolitical parameters of the vernacular. His work is a mise en scène of various disciplines of knowledge, conducted by an artist in multiple roles of an archivist, researcher, communicator and performer. The issues of national identity and the construction of borders remain in the center of Müller’s investigations of the economies of site and the politics of belonging. For his Green Border installation, the artist, dressed as a hiker, crossed Austria’s green borders eight times illegally. During his first site visit in March 2008 at Rovereto’s former Manifattura Tabacchi Müller by chance found a package of ApolloSojuz still wrapped in cellophane, produced in Russia for Philip Morris. Intrigued by the image of the copulating space ships he started to research its history as well as its relation to the Manifattura Tabacchi. He discovered that in 1936 Futurist Fortunato Depero conceived a float (carro allegorico) for the factory that resembled a cross of a tank with folkloristic allegories. In direct analogy to this late regional adaptation of a utopian art movement Müller takes the 1975 space rendez-vous as a model for his Manifesta float. The opening parade starts at the train station and then physically connects the historical center of Rovereto with the venues of the show. Müller’s Carro Largo will be populated by people in traditional costumes for the 1936 festa dell’uva by Depero.


Location

ROVERETO

ADAM BUDAK: "PRINCIPLE HOPE"

EX PETERLINI, VIA SAVIOLI 20 – MANIFATTURA TABACCHI, P.ZZA MANIFATTURA 1 -STAZIONE FERROVIARIA, PIAZZALE ORSI, I-38068 ROVERETO, ITALY

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