In Conversation with Michael Müller and Ying Kwok
Date: 23 March 2022, 19:30 HKT
Moderator: Anqi Li
Full Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSt-xFVZW_I
Galerie du Monde is hosting an online conversation with German artist Michael Müller and curator Ying Kwok about the ongoing 3-chapter solo exhibition series Three Biographical Attempts on Wednesday, 23 March 2022 at 19:30 (HKT) via Zoom.
The Three Biographical Attempts exhibition series is like Müller’s personal diary from the past three decades. Through each chapter, Müller unveils his journey of self-discovery, embracing change, and self-formation.
In the first chapter Structure－Feeling and Accuracy, Müller presented his decade-long journey in the Himalayas that he embarked on in his early 20s, divulging a man’s quest to one’s cultural heritage and faith. Müller believes one must first understand and recognize one’s heritage, one is then able to form one’s own structure of thoughts and belief system.
In the second chapter The Cloud Surveyor, Müller delved into specific events and dreams from his journey in the Himalayas, further elaborating on the concepts of feeling and accuracy, the self and the other, and shifting perspectives.
In the finale Self-Creation, Müller exposes personal and intimate events of his life, to elaborate on the belief that “Life is Flux” (proposed by ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus), the theory of tabula rasa, and his motto of “Do It Yourself" – asserting the notion that human beings, each individual should take charge in constructing one’s self, one’s relationship with the other and the world – through his large-scale installations in a white cube with “a dangerous open bracket”.
About Michael Müller
Michael Müller (b. 1970, Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany) is an artist with a German-Indian background, whose manifold, proliferating oeuvre cannot be ascribed to any one-way interpretation. He continuously broadens the methods of his artistic expression, combining works on paper with painting, text-based work, sculpture, found objects, music, and performance. Müller studied sculpting and fine arts at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf with Magdalena Jetelová. From 2015 to 2018, he was a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts. In 2018, he was nominated for the Kunstpreis der Böttcherstraße, Bremen.
About Ying Kwok
Ying Kwok is the Senior Curator for Heritage and Digital at Tai Kwun – Centre for Heritage and Arts. She has been working as an independent curator between 2013-2021. She works with a diverse range of art and cultural institutions locally and internationally, from artist’s initiatives, art festivals, to public museums and the commercial sector. Kwok was the curator for the 5th Audemars Piguet Art Commission - Phoebe Hui: The Moon is Leaving Us, festival director of Peer to Peer: UK/HK online festival, curator for Contagious Cities: Far Away, Too Close for Tai Kwun Contemporary and Wellcome Trust, and guest curator at M+ Museum for Samson Young: Songs for Disaster Relief as the Hong Kong presentation at the 57th Venice Biennale. Kwok also founded the Art Appraisal Club and bilingual journal Art Review Hong Kong to develop critical thinking in local art discourses in Hong Kong. In 2014, Kwok was awarded the Asian Cultural Council Fellowship, and an international fellow in the Clore Leadership Programme 2018/19.
About Anqi Li
Anqi Li is a contemporary art researcher and curator. She is a PhD student at the University of Hong Kong, researching museum studies in the 21st century and cultural policy. Previously she has worked with Para Site Hong Kong, Harvard Art Museums, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art among others. She received her Bachelor's from San Francisco Art Institute and Master's from Harvard Graduate School of Education.
