DATA STREAMING - Michel Majerus

12.11.2022 - 12.02.2023

The exhibition DATA STREAMING shows a series of works from the later stage of Michel Majerus’ (1967–2002) œuvre in which the artist vigorously negotiates the coming of age of the digital within visual culture in the 1990s and early 2000s. In this body of work, Majerus suspends figurative and abstract elements of painting with digital printing technologies that were emerging at the time. He translates both into works ranging from smaller formats to large scale, multi-panel paintings and his seminal installation the space is where you’ll find it (2000) on view in the exhibition.

As a user of digital culture several iconic figures both real and virtual from and around gaming, animation, and hacking appear in Majerus’ work — such as the hacker Boris Floricic (1972–1998), the video game Space Invaders, and the characters Donkey Kong and Super Mario. In this expansive painting vocabulary Majerus also adopts the formal language of post-production software such as Adobe Photoshop. As part of Majerus’ synthesis of existing aesthetic strategies from painting, installation, and conceptual art within his work, the immersive installation the space is where you’ll find it (2000) envelops viewers in a cosmos of digital images. By bringing these works together in the present, DATA STREAMING asks how to read and understand Majerus’ work with the hindsight of artistic and technological developments made in the past twenty years.

DATA STREAMING is part of a series of exhibitions that will look at Majerus’ œuvre anew, taking place at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, the Michel Majerus Estate, and at neugerriemschneider for the 20th anniversary of Michel Majerus’ passing. In parallel, thirteen museums throughout Germany will show works by Michel Majerus from their collections.

A comprehensive publication will be published in collaboration with all project partners.