Simon Speiser CV
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Touching Clouds VR
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A Body of Memory Kunsthalle Trondheim
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La Vision del Monte Light installation Casa del Barrio Guayaquil Ecuador

Touching Clouds

First off a premiere of a new VR piece “Touching Clouds” shown at Moovy Dace Film Festival in Cologne, in collaboration with Norbert Pape, Franziska Aigner, Goksu Kunak, Hanako Hayakawa and Pedra Costa.

25. - 28.05.2023, 15:00 -21:00 at Alte Feuerwache, Melchiorstraße 3, 50670 Köln

A Body of Memory (from neurons to the sea)

“Piña Why is the Sky Blue?” is touring and showing as part of the group show “A Body of Memory” at Kunsthalle Trondheim Norway from 22.06.-10.09.23

La Vision del Monte

And last but not least, I will be premiering a whole new body of work at Casa del Barrio in Guayaquil Ecuador on August 17. I will be showing a light installation that will tell stories of spiritual encounters in the rainforest of Esmeraldas Ecuador. Big thanks to eacheve for the invitation and support!

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27.04 - 04.12 2022 at Julina Stoschek Collection Berlin

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JSC Piña Why is the Sky Blue? anouncement
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still from Piña Why is the Sky Blue? VR
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still from Piña Why is the Sky Blue? Video
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still from Piña Why is the Sky Blue? VR

Piña, Why is the Sky Blue? presents an affirming techno feminist vision of a future in which ancestral knowledge and new technologies converge. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a video/virtual-reality installation of the same title, a recent acquisition by the JULIA STOSCHEK COLLECTION. This speculative documentary narrates the story of a spiritual medium known as Piña. As a form of artificial intelligence, Piña is able to receive and collect inherited knowledge, messages, and dreams in order to secure their survival. Through an emphasis on matriarchal lineages and their modes of knowledge transmission, the artists consider how precolonial ways of being have survived into the present in spite of their ongoing violent oppression.

The show marks the first institutional solo exhibition in Germany of Berlin-based artists Stephanie Comilang and Simon Speiser. In addition to the installation, it features textile collages made of woven pineapple-cloth swatches, which Comilang and Speiser have 3D-printed an amalgamation of traditional Ecuadorian and Filipino patterns along with new designs generated either by the artists or by a self-learning algorithm.

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March 2019, Oracle, Berlin (Solo Show)

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still of floats at oracle Berlin by simon speiser, Virtual Reality
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still of floats at oracle Berlin by simon speiser, Virtual Reality
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installation view of floats at oracle Berlin by simon speiser, Virtual Reality
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installation view of floats at oracle Berlin by simon speiser, Virtual Reality
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installation view of floats at oracle Berlin by simon speiser, Virtual Reality
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installation view of floats at oracle Berlin by simon speiser, Virtual Reality
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installation view of floats at oracle Berlin by simon speiser, Virtual Reality, Norman Rosental
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installation view of floats at oracle Berlin by simon speiser, Virtual Reality

The VR work "Floats" takes on a central motif of Momo, the novel published by Michael Ende in 1973. Here, so- called Stundenblumen embody time frozen in space. The time stored in them is disseminated by their blossoming, blooming and withering. In Speiser‘s work, these flowers are exchanged for 32 objects he was given by friends or he had himself collected, all bearing a particular relationship to time and memory. In the work, these objects drift towards the spectator, extend to larger than life floating around, and shrink while moving away towards the horizon. Their movements form a Mandala-like pattern while they traverse a full circle around the viewer in exact 24 minutes, contemplating upon time(s)and space(s). They range from everyday objects whose meaning relies on the particular experiences they embody to a stone covered with traces microorganisms left 145 million years ago or a meteorite, bringing in matter from outside the solar system. Some also have a relationship to pondering about the question of time in relationship to the development of the species on earth, as is the case with a little sculpture of an ape sitting on a pile of books by Charles Darwin, a copy of which was owned by Lenin. Another aspect the title is hinting at is the floating-point arithmetic procedures that form one of the basic elements for computational processes, the condition upon which the work itself is depended upon. Floating-point arithmetic is fundamentally a formulaic attempt to represent infinite real numbers approximately, mirroring the dilemma of defining time.

Visitors to the exhibitions find a carpet in the middle of the space, showing the image of one of the objects appea- ring in the work, with a mirror hovering above, reflecting both the image as well as the observers.

Floats, 2019, VR video, sound, 24 min

Music by Mobilegirl

Software architecture by Marcel Karnapke

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January 2019, , EVBG, Berlin

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Installation view of Finger my fern, print Beyond the Forest by  Simon Speiser
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Installation view of Finger my fern, print Beyond the Forest by  Simon Speiser
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Installation view of Finger my fern, print Beyond the Forest by  Simon Speiser
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Installation view of Finger my fern, print Beyond the Forest by  Simon Speiser
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Installation view of Finger my fern, print Beyond the Forest by  Simon Speiser

Let’s imagine love affairs between humans and non-human organisms. Are they dark and twisted? Tender and sweet or hot and steamy? Who’s dominant, who’s submissive? And what emerges from this coupling?

As our world becomes increasingly high-tech, with ever cleaner and smoother surfaces, we celebrate artificiality while ruining our environment en passant. The more estranged we feel from nature, the more we idealize it. We need to reconnect. And is there a better way to do so than through the sensual? Because in the end, we are nature and nature is us, and we’re all dirty.

FINGER MY FERN dwells in the desires that the non-human living world invokes in us and follows the fantasies we project onto it.

eaturing Sophie Erlund, Asana Fujikawa, Andrea Éva Győri, Lena Anouk Philipp, Simon Speiser, Beth Stephens and Annie Sprinkle, Urara Tsuchiya

Click here to read "Beyond the Forest"

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December 2018, at Robert Grunenberg Berlin

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solid perfume sculpture scent of the sabre tooth tiger at metamodernity robert grunenberg berlin
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solid perfume sculpture scent of the sabre tooth tiger at metamodernity robert grunenberg berlin
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solid perfume sculpture scent of the sabre tooth tiger at metamodernity robert grunenberg berlin
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solid perfume sculpture scent of the sabre tooth tiger at metamodernity robert grunenberg berlin
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solid perfume sculpture scent of the sabre tooth tiger at metamodernity robert grunenberg berlin

Featuring: KOO JEONG A, PEPPI BOTTROP, MARCEL BROODTHAERS, ANDERS DICKSON, PAUL FERENS, HARDY HILL, ASTRIT ISMAILI, OLIVER LARIC, KRIS LEMSALU, JULIEN NGUYEN, FRANCIS PICABIA, SIMON SPEISER, RAPHAELA VOGEL

„The scent of the Sabre Tooth Tiger“ is part of a series of perfume sculptures, which bring form and scent into a new relation and builds a bridge between imagination and reality through odor. For this sculpture I developed a scent with Enad Marouf, mixed with Dann Oud, oxidized iron and pine essences. One can touch the Sculpture and with the contact of the skin it starts to melt and transfers its scent.

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December 2018, Archivio Conz, Berlin

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A project conceived by The Performance Agency and Supportico Lopez with the Archivio Conz
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A project conceived by The Performance Agency and Supportico Lopez with the Archivio Conz
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A project conceived by The Performance Agency and Supportico Lopez with the Archivio Conz
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A project conceived by The Performance Agency and Supportico Lopez with the Archivio Conz
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A project conceived by The Performance Agency and Supportico Lopez with the Archivio Conz

A project conceived by The Performance Agency and Supportico Lopez with the Archivio Conz.

With :

Genesis P Orridge William S Burroughs Suzuki Sisters Robert Delford Brown George Brecht Lawrence Ferlinghetti Heike-Karin Föll Ken Friedman John Furnival Dan Bodan John Giorno Joe Jones Simon Speiser Milan Knížák Larry Miller Charlotte Moorman Caique Tizzi Yehezkel Raz Carolee Schneemann Paul Sharits Forever Traxx Gil Schneider Mårten Spångberg Emmett Williams Yantan Ministry Joshua Höareau & Elza Ozolite

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Apirl 2018, at Robert Grunenberg Berlin

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weavings from 'In a Young World of Resplendent Glitter' by Simon Speiser at 'paradise is now' Robert Grunenberg, Virtual Reality
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weavings from 'In a Young World of Resplendent Glitter' by Simon Speiser at 'paradise is now' Robert Grunenberg, Virtual Reality
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weavings from 'In a Young World of Resplendent Glitter' by Simon Speiser at 'paradise is now' Robert Grunenberg, Virtual Reality

“In a Young World of Resplendent Glitter“ is a virtual reality narration that embodies a desire for origin in a world that keeps alienating us from nature as the primal place of spiritual balance. It is not meant as a critique of modern life but rather it is a fictio- nal approach to the contemporary state of mind. The concept of wildlife, rainforests, palm trees, and lonesome beaches all trigger an association to inner peace and relaxation: a place to recover from hectic modern lifestyles. These conceptions are not really ap- plicable and rather work as a mental experiment, which is where I see the new abode for wild nature. A virtual place hovering next to our modern lives.

This virtual reality piece extends from the 5th chapter of an on-going story which I started in 2013 with “Falling for the Matuhi“. In this story an artificial bird species with telepathic capabilities gets exploited by mankind as a communication device akin to the Internet. The birds are born into a world dominated by technology and have never experienced life in the wild. In search of refuge, the Matuhi create an imaginary forest based on information it gathers about the natural habitats of birds. The Matuhi, as pure children of technology, start to fantasize about a hypothetical paradise situated in the past which leads them to create a new version of nature as a parallel dimension.

A series of tapestries form an analoge reference of the fictional VR world into our reality. The weaving translates the unique aesthetic of the point cloud forest wile at same time taking a completely different form. The tapestry also makes reference to Ada Lovelace the inventor of the automated weaving machines who build the foundation for computers. This reference creates an arch from the early stage of computer science to cutting edge VR technology.

Music: Negroma and Mobilegirl

Voices: Billy Bultheel, Lyra Pramuk, Luzie Meyer Editor: Clare Molloy

Software architect: Marcel Karnapke

Press

WELT • 29.04.2018 • Boris Pofalla

Im Salon Dahlmann um die Ecke vom KaDeWe hat Robert Grunenberg mit „Paradise Is Now“ eine Schau über die Palme in der Kunst kuratiert. Polke und Bal- dessari dürfen nicht fehlen. Simon Speisers „In a Young World of Resplendent Glitter“ ist eine bestürzend schö- ne Arbeit, die hier ihre Premiere erlebt. Man will die VR-Brille gar nicht mehr ausziehen, so fantastisch ist es, durch die 3-D-Dschungelwelt zu fliegen, den Stamm riesiger Bäume entlang, durch Blüten und Gesträuch, die in pünktchengroße Vektoren übertragen wurden. Der Städel-Schüler hat die Pflanzen in Ecuador und Brasilien eingescannt und zu Landschaften montiert.

Gallerytalk.net • 30. Mai 2018 • Gastautor

„...Auch der junge deutsche Künstler Simon Speiser ne- giert die Vergänglichkeit von Natur indem er in seinem Werk, „In A Young World of Resplendent Glitter“, 2018, einen scheinbar unendlichen Raum floralen Paradieses kreiert. Mittels virtueller Realität lässt er den Besucher in die Tiefen eines Palmenhains eintauchen und sich in den Untiefen des Dschungels verlieren. Inspiriert durch den naturbelassenen Regenwald auf dem Landgut seines Vaters in Ecuador, zeigt sich die Palme als Sinnbild für Exotik und Fernweh. Speiser schafft eine intensive Er- fahrung in einer Umgebung, die jeder Besucher individu- ell beschreiten kann.“

Numero Homme • Feb. 2018 GQ • Okt. 2018

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March 2018, DGTL FMNSM, Festspielhaus Hellerau, Dresden

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installation view of 'The smile you are smiling you where smiling then but I can't remember where or when' by Stephanie Comilang and Simon Speiser
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installation view of 'The smile you are smiling you where smiling then but I can't remember where or when' by Stephanie Comilang and Simon Speiser

Stephanie Comilang and Simon Speiser’s collaborative film installation involves Paradise, a fictional character played by a drone. In previous works by Comilang, Paradise surfaces as a disembodied voice who speaks of connectedness through adaptation, bodies as archives, and entangled narratives of possible futurities. In this new work, Speiser‘s daughter Lotte, who was born in Ecuador, where Speiser‘s family is from, lends her voice and knowledge to the fictional character of Paradise. For people like Lotte, born in one place and moved to another, home is an amorphous thing. The familiarity of two places creates a feeling of constant-déjà-vu, similar to the card game of Memory, in which the player attempts to pair one card with another. What could this space of deja-vu look like?

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May 2017, Broken Dimanche Press, Berlin (Solo Show)

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book 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser published at Broken Dimanche press berlin
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book 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser published at Broken Dimanche press berlin
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book 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser published at Broken Dimanche press berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin
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istallation view of 'like biting into sugar cane' by Simon Speiser at Broken Dimanche Press Berlin

It is with great pleasure that BDP inaugurates the series ‘a book, a room’ with the solo exhibition and book like biting into sugar cane by Simon Speiser. Both the exhibition and book are intended to co-habit the same arena, operating in and around each other in a pas de deux that maps the artist’s many interests. Ranging from science fiction, erotica, animalism and the exploration of worlds both distant and near, these interests mark Speiser as an artist of the already-present future, distinct with a singular visual and text vocabulary.

  In the gallery space of Buro BDP, Speiser exhibits a number of prints of his work that incorporate manga and anime imagery, spacecraft and sex, they act like timestamps of a hallucinatory imagination. In tandem with the physical exhibit is the book of the same name that is printed in an initial limited edition run. These texts, collecting for the first time the artist’s writing, some of which have previously appeared alongside or as part of his artwork and exhibitions, allows the reader, in the words of Mark von Schlegell, to ‘encounter perhaps the strangest recognizable texts yet concocted outside her own head’.

  like biting into sugar cane Simon Speiser 78 pages, A5, English Book design: Form Und Konzept Initial 50 limited edition copies 10 EURO

You can buy the book at www.brokendimanche.eu

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December 2016, Halle für Kunst, Lüneburg

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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg
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Installation view of 'gebärden und ausdrücke' at Halle für Kunst Lüneburg

A groupshow of a 3 part serie at Halle für Kust Lüneburg, this part was devoted to "expression". With works by Liz Craft, Michaela Eichwald, Fanal, Birke Gorm, Julia Haller, Honey Suckle Company, Helena Huneke, Stefan Kern, Kontakt Sappho, Veit Laurent Kurz & Ben Schumacher & Stefan Tcherepnin, pcnc_bay und Steit

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July 2015, MMCA, Seoul

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Installation view of 'cryodrama' by simon speiser
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Installation view of 'cryodrama' by simon speiser
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Installation view of 'cryodrama' by simon speiser
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Installation view of 'cryodrama' by simon speiser

VɅ-207 AI: „VɅ-207 set to destination Alpha 6, total duration of travel 113 years, current status of spaceship: 97% of the journey completed, minor damages on front shield and rockets. Resources low but stable, Crew of 9 human beings in cryogenic conservation, 3 of them with chance of survival, arrival in approximately 3,39 years. Starting first stage of revitalization."

White noise was slowly tuning in as a plain colorless environment filled with nothing but dense fog was unfolding in the minds of the 3 last survivors on the VɅ-207.

To read the full story please click here

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July 2015, Croy Nielsen Gallery, Berlin

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frozen juice sculpture 'tropical emotions' by simon speiser at Croy Nelsen Gallery
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frozen juice sculpture 'tropical emotions' by simon speiser at Croy Nelsen Gallery
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frozen juice sculpture 'tropical emotions' by simon speiser at Croy Nelsen Gallery
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frozen juice sculpture 'tropical emotions' by simon speiser at Croy Nelsen Gallery

CHRISTIANE BLATTMANN, PRUITT & EARLY, ANAHITA RAZMI, ANDREAS SIEKMANN, SIMON SPEISER

invited by Daniel Herleth and Bärbel Trautwein

11. July – 1. August

 

Press release

In the Iliad, the death of the Troyan hero Hector is preluded by his freightened father´s comparison between the approaching Achilles and Sirius, already then commonly named Orion´s Dog, or simply, Dog Star:

The careful eyes of Priam first beheld.

Not half so dreadful rises to the sight,

Through the thick gloom of some tempestuous night,

Orion's dog (the year when autumn weighs),

And o'er the feebler stars exerts his rays;

Terrific glory! for his burning breath

Taints the red air with fevers, plagues, and death.

– Homer, Iliad, XXII 26–31

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January 2015, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt

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installation view of 'In the Eye of the Timber' by Simon Speiser at Frankfurter Kunstverein New Frankfurt Internationals
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installation view of 'In the Eye of the Timber' by Simon Speiser at Frankfurter Kunstverein New Frankfurt Internationals
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installation view of 'In the Eye of the Timber' by Simon Speiser at Frankfurter Kunstverein New Frankfurt Internationals

For the exhibition "New Frankfurt Internationals" at Frankfurter Kunstverein I build a tree fountain and wrote a new chapter for the eongoing stories from the sparkling forrest. This time from a different perspective by describing the world in the eye of a tree or from the expanded consciouseness of the trees.

Click here to read "In the Eye of the Timber"

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November 2014, Oracle, Berlin (Solo-Show)

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installation view of 'inside the lacuna' by Simon Speiser at Oracle Berlin
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installation view of 'inside the lacuna' by Simon Speiser at Oracle Berlin
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installation view of 'inside the lacuna' by Simon Speiser at Oracle Berlin
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installation view of 'inside the lacuna' by Simon Speiser at Oracle Berlin
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installation view of 'inside the lacuna' by Simon Speiser at Oracle Berlin
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For the solo-show at Oracle, I developed a very much interweaved work that consists out of two prints on fabric, a steadycam sculpture, a video film with the sculpture from the prints and the short story "Inside the Lacuna". They all tell the same story and lure you into the crystal world and the passion for filming with steadycam.  

Click here to read the short story

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July 2014, MMK Zollamt, Frankfurt

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Installation view of 'Luring Potential' by Simon Speiser at MMK Zollamt Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'Luring Potential' by Simon Speiser at MMK Zollamt Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'Luring Potential' by Simon Speiser at MMK Zollamt Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'Luring Potential' by Simon Speiser at MMK Zollamt Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'Luring Potential' by Simon Speiser at MMK Zollamt Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'Luring Potential' by Simon Speiser at MMK Zollamt Frankfurt

The piece "Luring Potential" consisting of 3 elements, a digital print, 3D printed sculpture and a short story, resembles the third chapter of the ongoing story about the sparkling forrest and its creators the matuhi birds. It was shown in the MMK Zollamt Frankfurt for the graduationshow 2014 of the Städelschool.

Click here to read the short story

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August 2013, Palmengarten MMK, Frankfurt

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Installation view of 'falling for the Matuhi' by Simon Speiser show in a Pavillion by helio oiticica organized by MMK Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'falling for the Matuhi' by Simon Speiser show in a Pavillion by helio oiticica organized by MMK Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'falling for the Matuhi' by Simon Speiser show in a Pavillion by helio oiticica organized by MMK Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'falling for the Matuhi' by Simon Speiser show in a Pavillion by helio oiticica organized by MMK Frankfurt
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Installation view of 'falling for the Matuhi' by Simon Speiser show in a Pavillion by helio oiticica organized by MMK Frankfurt

As part of the “Hélio Oiticica: The Great Labyrinth” retrospective exhibition at the MMK, three pavilions by Hélio Oiticica were installed in the Frankfurt Palmengarten. In one of these pavilions a performance and film program was presented during September and October 2013. I was invited to conceive a temporary installation for a weekend at the beginning of September. The groundwork for this installation was a short story I wrote called “Falling for the Matuhi” which also became the title of the installation. The idea was to step into the story and experience the flavors and odors from the sparkling forest, the imaginary refuge of the Matuhi. Three of the four rooms of the pavilions were almost identical, each of them containing a cocoa fountain on a golden shimmering pedestal, with cut crystal glasses spread in groups on the floor so that people could serve themselves from the cocoa fountains. The story was printed on paper rolls that were also standing on the floor for people to take with them.

Placing objects straight onto the floor is a very important gesture for me as it invites the visitor to crouch and enter into a very intimate dialog with the objects.

At all entrances cut crystal bowls filled with cocoa nibs were placed, giving a bittersweet and tanic flavored impression for the visitor while stepping into this maze of sensory experience. In the forth room a huge crystal clear ice sculpture was shown, it contained three Matuhi that where released during the melting process over the two days, fulfilling the transcendence from the sparkling forrest into our world.

Click here to read the short story

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