dust to dust : of myths and men

Curator| Kevin Muhlen
Artists | Karolina Markiewicz & Pascal Piron, Marco Godinho
Date |17 Nov. – 30 Dec., 2018 (Wed. to Sun, 2 – 8 pm, Mon. and Tue. closed)
Venue | TheCube Project Space (2F, No. 13, Aly. 1, Lane 136, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Rd., Taipei, Taiwan)
Hours | Wed.to Sun., 2-8 pm (closed on Mon. and Tues.)
Opening |17 Nov. (Sat.), 2018
∎ 2 – 4 pm _ Opening and tattoo activity
@VT Artsalon (B1, No.17, Ln.56, Sec.3, Xinsheng N. Rd, Taipei City 104, Taiwan.)
∎ 4 – 7 pm _ Opening @TheCube Project Space
∎ 8 pm _ Music performance(by Kevin Muhlen)
@Beryl Music Studio (B1., No.94, Sec. 1, Roosevelt Rd., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100, Taiwan)

The international exchange exhibition dust to dust: of myths and men will be presented by Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, TheCube Project Space, and VT Artsalon. The exhibition is curated by Kevin Muhlen, director of the Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, featuring the collaborative work by Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron, and the work from Marco Godinho. The artists are invited back to continue their art projects that they’ve initiated during their short residency in Taiwan in April 2018, and to present their final work at VT Artsalon and TheCube Project Space from Nov. 17 to Dec. 30. The opening of the exhibition will start on Nov 17 (Sat.) at VT Artsalon (2－4 pm) and will later move to TheCube Project Space (4－6 pm). The exhibition is also launched with a music performance by Kevin Muhlen towards the end (8 pm).

In addition, for the second phase of this international exchange, TheCube Project Space and VT Artsalon will curate screening programs which shall be presented at Casino Luxembourg –Forum d’art contemporain during the summer and autumn of 2019.

∎ Curatorial Statement

Dust as a beginning and an end. Dust as primal matter and last remains. Dust as the past, the present and the future. Dust as a dead layer of the passing of time.
Dust as lively particles suspended in the air. Dust as nothing, Dust as everything.

In this exhibition three artists, the duo Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron, as well as Marco Godinho, explore our contemporary world and society through physical and mental recordings of the realms they encounter. Here the socio-political cohabitates with ancient mythology and philosophy, the factual reality meets the abstract and immaterial conceptions that have been populating human minds for centuries. Of course the stories created by this process become new myths, fictions of our reality and poems to the everyday.
Shifts of notions, but also loss and gain of meaning and comprehension through cultural or contextual displacements, disappearances – even destruction – are at the core of the exhibitions statement. Hence the artists are deliberately blurring the lines by progressively erasing parts of their narrative and fragmenting the structure to leave the viewers questioning the whole and filling in the gaps mentally.
The exhibition itself spreads over two exhibition spaces – TheCube Project Space and VT Artsalon – making it impossible for the public to grasp it’s entirety without engaging in a physical movement through the city of Taipei. This migration of the public is an echo to the shifts provoked and questioned by the artists through the works in the exhibition itself.
It is in these trails of dust – gathered or spread – that the artists develop their concepts and write their stories of myths and men.

∎ Curator

Kevin Muhlen (*1977 in Luxembourg) is currently director of Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain. After studing in art history in Brussels and Strasbourg, he started to work at Casino Luxembourg in 2004. Between 2009 and 2015, he was artistic director of the institution.
In 2016, Kevin Muhlen initiated the renovation of Casino. The art centre’s programme is mainly focused on solo shows by international artists. Besides the exhibitions at Casino he is also regularly invited as guest curator for projects abroad. In 2007 and 2017 he was curator of the Luxembourg pavilion at the Venice Biennale.
He is a regular contributor to different catalogues and publications. Kevin Muhlen is also president of Luxembourg’s public art commission.

∎ Artists

Karolina Markiewicz and Pascal Piron work as a multidisciplinary artist duo, they co-direct films (experimental documentary and fiction) and theater plays. Their main interest is to tell and illustrate stories in the reflection of the human condition in society and history.
Mos Stellarium their first documentary that focuses on the lives of six young migrants, has been released as a film in cinemas and at international festivals and presented as a 4-channel video installation, co-representing Liechtenstein at the 2015 56th Venice Biennale.
Currently they are working on their short film series Side Effects of Reality, which oscillates between experimental documentation and fiction. They also make paintings from different film stills and work on different techniques of experimental photography to create a coherent illustration of different stories. The questioning and analysis of what an image is, is a central point of their artistic research.
They are also in pre-production of a location based virtual reality (VR) experience, My Identity is this expanse, planned for 2020 at Casino Luxembourg art center. This project is the prologue of a ten episodes VR series Human Resources, planned for 2021. They also develop a documentary. The Living Witnesses is about the Second World War and the populist and right-wing movements growing today all over Europe. The next exhibition is in March 2019 during the Month of Photography in Luxembourg. Further information: www.markiewicz-piron.com

Marco Godinho, born 1978 in Salvaterra de Magos, Portugal. Lives and works between Echternach, Luxembourg and Paris, France. He has been for a number of years now, sensitively tackling with a post-conceptual practice, the notions of exile, memory, and geography inspired by his own experience of nomadic life, suspended between different languages and cultures and nourished by literature and poetry. From installations and videos to drawings and collaborative pieces, his works form a map of a world shaped by personal experiences and multiculturalism.

∎ Opening Activity

Tattoo activity｜Foever Immigrant (Tattoo), 2018 
17 Nov., 2018 (Sat.) 2 – 4 pm @VT Artsalon(B1, No.17, Ln.56, Sec.3, Xinsheng N. Rd, Taipei City 104, Taiwan.

( Image © Marco Godinho )

For the exhibition dust to dust: of myths and men a local tattoo artist will tattoo the day of the opening (November 17, 2018) and for free the work Forever Immigrant of the artist Marco Godinho on the body of the visitors.

Music performance｜Away from that line, in toward the earth
17 Nov., 2018 (Sat.) 8pm @Beryl Music Studio (B1., No.94, Sec. 1, Roosevelt Rd., Zhongzheng Dist., Taipei City 100, Taiwan)

Musician
Kevin Muhlen been a musician for more than 25 years his main past projects being the metal band ExInferis (1998-2011) and the post-metal band soleilnoir (2011-2016). He has toured extensively and released numerous records with both bands.
Recently he has been interested in abstract sound creations and compositions, inspired by noise and drone. His musical explorations are closely connected to the visual arts field and he his recent work has been produced in the framework of different artistic projects.
The score for Away from that line, in toward the earth was composed and performed in collaboration with Angelo Mangini and the artists Gast Bouschet and Nadine Hilbert. The performance will feature a video projection by Bouschet-Hilbert.