Michael Beutler, Wursthäuser, 2014 (Detail), Installation Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Holz, Papier, Gemüsenetz, Gips, Maße variabel, Courtesy der Künstler und Galerie Nagel Draxler Berlin/Köln

Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014
Michael Beutler, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Philipp Ottendörfer, © Bielefelder Kunstverein, 2014

Michael Beutler

Haus Beutler

May 10 – July 27, 2014

OPENING: FRIDAY, MAY 09, 7 PM

Michael Beutler has become known internationally for his extensive bricolage installations. From May 10, 2014 onwards, the Bielefelder Kunstverein is devoting a comprehensive survey exhibition to the artist´s œuvre. In line with the exhibition’s title »Haus Beutler« (»The Beutler House«), Michael Beutler will array the Kunstverein’s entire exhibition space and its inner courtyard with an outdoor project. For the first time, this solo exhibition is offering an insight into the various contexts and development processes of his projects since 2002. He has developed the exhibition’s architecture especially for the Kunstverein and complements it with some new installations. Additionally, for the first time he presents models, studies in materials, photo and video documentations as well as drawings of earlier projects.

In his works, Beutler reacts primarily to the social and architectural structures of the respective exhibition situation, which is used as a site for production and presentation at one and the same time. To produce the modules for his installations, he first builds his own tools or »proto-machines«. They are used to process industrially-fabricated materials like paper, metal, wood or plastics. As his work takes shape, the artist repeatedly involves third parties in the working process too. This state of temporary uncertainty and processual development are understood by him as productive components in his work.

With this exhibition in the Bielefelder Kunstverein, Michael Beutler will be re-interrogating his way of working and the development of his installations. Through examples of current and completed projects, the exhibition will enable viewers to understand the particular situation, the specific development and the choice of materials. In this process, it is the exhibition of contemporary sculpture, the possibilities of artistic documentation and the communication of ephemeral projects that themselves become the topic of a unique presentation.

Michael Beutler, born in Oldenburg in 1976, lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule (Frankfurt am Main) and at the Glasgow School of Art (UK). Numerous solo exhibitions have featured this artist, among others at the Museum für Gegenwartskunst Basel (CH) (2014), the Centre d´Art Contemporain Saint-Nazaire (2013), the Karlsruhe ZKM | Centre for Art and Media (2012) and the Kunsthalle Lingen (2011). In recent times, Beutler has also participated in group exhibitions in the Museé d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (FR), the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (RC) (both 2013), the Lucerne Museum of Art (CH) (2012) and the Singapore Biennale (2011). The Bielefelder Kunstverein is devoting a comprehensive solo exhibition to the artist, which will occupy our entire exhibition space. Michael Beutler is planning a large-scale project in cooperation with the architect Etienne Desloux, on the occasion of the reopening of the Kunsthalle Osnabrück under its new guidance.

Curator: Thomas Thiel

Exhibition support: