M+M

Beyond the Purity Law

and

The Scorpion´s Sting

A group project initiated by M+M based on Luis Buñuel´s “L´Âge d´Or” with Tobias Zielony, Chicks on Speed, M+M, Keren Cytter, Julian Rosefeldt and John Bock

It’s the first exhibition of artistic duo M+M at Helga de Alvear Gallery. The exhibition includes the expanded cinema installation 7 Days, and its epilogue, The 8th Day, as well as the collective film project initiated by M+M, The Scorpion’s Sting. The exhibition establishes an intense dialogue with cinema through all of its facets, as language, as raw material, as institution, and as a source of inspiration.

The Scorpion’s Sting is a reference to L’Âge d’Or (1930) the infamous film by Spanish director Luis Buñuel. For this piece, M+M invited six internationally renowned artists and artistic groups who were asked to reinterpret the six episodes of this masterpiece of Surrealism. Contributions to this project came from artists and performers from around the world such as: Tobias Zielony, Chicks on Speed, M+M, Keren Cytter, Julian Rosefeldt and John Bock.

Buñuel aimed to influence society using radical and somewhat outrageous means, creating a concept of reality enhanced by imagination. In doing so, he paved the way for an art form – based on the recently created medium of sound film – in open opposition to commercial cinema. This expansion or demolition of social, genre and perceptual boundaries is also evident in The Scorpion’s Sting. A specially designed projection space has been created at the Helga de Alvear Gallery for this exhibition, with its fragmentary nature recalling the golden age of movie theaters.

In the expanded four-channel film installation 7 Days, M+M stage seven feature-film-like scenes as interwoven dual sequences that lead directly into the depths of the protagonist’s changing psyche. Actor Christoph Luser embodies the ambivalent main character, who is exposed to highly contrasting situations. M+M question the concept of identity against the backdrop of a radically altered perception of time. This somewhat disturbing film installation is a pivotal work within the oeuvre of this artistic duo, and took close to seven years to produce.

The 8th Day (2018), the artist’s latest production and epilogue to this film series, will be exhibited in the upper floor of the gallery. In The 8th Day, the main character from 7 Days engages in dialogue with a god-like or devil-like interlocutor. The entire sequence of this complex and multi-layered tale is a reference to the history of cinema during the 20th century and it uses this sweeping narrative to portray an inwardly torn human being.

* For the support of “The Scorpion’s Sting” the artists would like to thank Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, Institut Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt and the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, Berlin/Halle.