XIX CSAV – Artists Research Laboratory
Open Call for Young Artists
Matt Mullican: Meaning of Things5th – 29th July 2013
CSAV – Artists Research Laboratory is a project where dialogue and exchange among artists of different generations and nationalities stand at the heart of a unique artistic and learning experience. The lab is open to fifteen young artists of all nationalities, selected among the applicants by a jury. The programme lasts twenty-four days during which the participants attend a daily workshop activity and theoretical seminars run by the invited artist, the director, the curators and guest lecturers, as well as conferences held by artists, critics and experts of other disciplines.
The 19th edition of CSAV, titled Meaning of Things, will be held between the 5th and the 29th of July 2013 and run by American artist Matt Mullican.
During the laboratory, Mullican will discuss of the emotional interpretation of pictures and signs, that faculty of a picture to grab our consciousness and create an experience. This ongoing investigation of the relationship between perception and reality, between the ability to see something and the ability to represent it, will be examined along with other key themes of Mullican’s practice like the nature of the theatrical experience, its capacity to transform extreme emotional states, and the trancelike phenomenon that is the core of Mullican’s performances.
Matt Mullican (1951, Santa Monica, California) for over four decades has created a complex body of work concerned with systems of knowledge, meaning, language and signification. He creates artworks across a variety of mediums ranging from drawings and graphic works to sculptures and banners. He has developed a classification system through which he makes an attempt to observe and categorize all human experiences. In the 1970s Mullican began to experiment with trancelike states and hypnotism in order to experience the uncharted depths of everyday life, creating a state of hyper-consciousness that allows him to better catalogue human behaviour.
Mullican’s work has been exhibited internationally since the early 1970s in venues including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Haus Der Kunst, Munich; National Galerie, Berlin; Stedelijk Museum, Schiedam, Netherlands; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; his work was also included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial. Mullican has taught and lectured at: Columbia University, New York; The Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam; Chelsea College of Art and Design, London; University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Hochschule für bildende Künste, Hamburg.
