From April 17 to September 6, 2015, Hamburger Bahnhof will transform its historic museum hall into a solo exhibition dedicated to Berlin-based artist Michael Beutler. Using industrially manufactured and processed materials, Beutler will build various structures that will gradually encroach upon the museum’s open space. Visitors will have the opportunity to experience the growth and progression of the installations as they each evolve through “phases of construction” over time.
Beutler’s creative processes and manipulation of space are unique to each of the sites he exhibits in. He plays off the structural features of the spaces, consuming each of them in an individually tailored way. His works can thus be understood as “reactions to architectural and social structures”, as he not only creates structures of his own, but interacts with and builds off of pre-existing ones. Using things like paper, metal, wood, and plastic, Beutler absorbs his surroundings in a way that is simultaneously complementary and intrusive, natural and unnatural. His works are interactive, ever-changing, and experimental, as he hints at questions of individuality and production with his self-made tools and the industrial implications that his materials bear with them.
Beutler’s focus is just as much on the artistic process as it is on the end product, as he allows for a certain amount of uncertainty and temporality in his pieces. As with Beutler’s solo exhibition at La Loge in Brussels, in which the artist transformed the space into “Haus Beutler”, Michael Beutler. Moby Dick will present viewers with a step-by-step architectural metamorphosis of the contemporary art space. Beutler’s use of the museum as medium is one that continues to intrigue his audience and is something to look forward to in the coming months at Hamburger Bahnhof.
