On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition "Dioskuren - Der geschenkte Tag", the artist Michael Müller, the curator Philipp Bollmann and the vice director of the Egyptian Museum and Papyrus Collection, Dr. Olivia Zorn, will talk about central aspects of Müller's monumental painting.

How can time be experienced in painting? What distinguishes perceived from measured time? And what role does the myth of the Dioscuri play in this debate?

You can get answers to these questions and further insights into Michael Müller's artistic work in the panel discussion, which will take place at the large staircase hall of the Neues Museum.

Free to attend with a valid show ticket.
No registration required.

This special exhibition, presented in the staircase hall of the Neues Museum, offers a dialogue on the meaning of time, mortality and the connection between past and present. Contemporary art meets historical space, refers to ancient models and offers a modern adaptation of the classical reception of the myth of the Dioscuri, who walk eternally between death and life.

The Given Day, the large-scale artwork is based on the ancient Greek myth of the twins Castor and Polydeuces, who are known as the Dioscuri. Both - sons of the beautiful king's daughter Leda - were conceived in one night by different fathers: Castor by Leda's husband, the Spartan king Tyndareos, and Polydeuces by the god Zeus, who seduced Leda in the guise of a swan. The twins take part in the search for the Golden Fleece and in Heracles’ battle against the Amazons. When the mortal Castor was killed, Polydeuces asked Zeus to take away his immortality so that he and his twin brother could spend eternity together in Hades, the realm of the dead. Zeus, moved by the twins’ love that transcends death, gives Polydeuces the choice of remaining eternally young or spending one day with his brother in Hades, and one day on Olympus among the gods. Polydeuces chooses mortality and from then on, both brothers alternate daily between death and life.

The work The Given Day symbolises the 24 hours of the day: from the bright day on Olympus, the two brothers descend into the darkness of Hades. Michael Müller painted exclusively at the hour of the day or night that each canvas represents, thus experienced the journey himself.

The location for the presentation of this monumental artwork was deliberately chosen. The story of the Dioscuri, with their love for each other that overcame mortality, not only inspired artists in the ancient times. Even the classicism of the 19th century could not resist its appeal. Monumental figures of twins taming their horses once stood in the staircase hall of the Neues Museum. They were casts of the originals from the Piazza dei Monte Cavallo in front of the Quirin Palace in Rome. Like large parts of the staircase itself, the sculptures were destroyed during the Second World War. Eighty years later, a modern adaptation brings this part of the building's history back to life.

The exhibition was created and curated by Philip Bollmann in collaboration with the Ägyptisches Museum and the Alien Athena Foundation for Art.

In addition to the large-scale artwork, exhibits on the myth of the Dioscuri from the Papyrussammlung (Papyrus Collection), the Münzkabinett (Numismatic Collection) and the Antikensammlung (Collection of Classical Antiquities) will interact with Müller’s work.

The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive program of events and is part of the 200th anniversary celebration of the Museum Island. The program will feature guided tours by curators and artists, readings and discussions, concerts and performances.

A special exhibition of the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

The first three volumes of Michael Müller’s Catalogue Raisonné "Ernstes Spiel" [Serious Game] have already been published. Each volume is accompanied by an exclusive edition of 20 copies, published by Alien Athena Foundation for Art, which offer a multifaceted look behind the scenes of the artistic creative process. Like the Catalogue Raisonné, which spans from the earliest artistic beginnings and sketches in the 1980s to the present day with large-format paintings, the edition also provides a comprehensive overview of Michael Müller’s entire diverse oeuvre.

Each edition picks up on central themes and media from the corresponding volume of the Catalogue Raisonné and distils a unique work from the various creative periods, artistic means of expression used and thematic focuses. No two copies of an edition are alike; rather, they are characterized by Müller’s individual artistic handwriting. Over the years and from edition to edition, a complex atlas of Michael Müller’s artistic works emerges, which is constantly growing, cannot in principle be finalised as long as the artist is still working, and faces up to the challenge of the open.

Intricately produced and framed in a high-quality acrylic glass frame, the edition shows not only the variety and diversity of the artistic means Müller uses, but also the constants of his oeuvre, of which playing with and analysing and varying systems of order and classification to the limits of what is possible and logical is of particular importance. Thus, as the basis of the entire edition, a grid system can be found in each individual work, which structures both the individual parts and the overall work that emerges from them and is at the same time a frequently recurring motif in Müller’s works.

In this way, the wall-filling complete work that results from the individual editions can be understood in a way as a return to Müller’s work Der Sinn des Wolkenvermessens (Working Title: Wolkenatlas) für Jean-Luc Nancy [The Sense of Measuring Clouds (Working Title: Cloud Atlas) for Jean-Luc Nancy] (2007/2014–21) from the group of works entitled Indexes, which prefigures central elements such as the grid system and the idea of an atlas of multiplicity.

For further information, please find more details to each edition via the following links:

"Ernstes Spiel: Verbinden (Kastor und Polydeukes)"

"Ernstes Spiel: Vergleichen (Otto Freundlich)"

"Ernstes Spiel: Verlesen"

On the occasion of this year's Ash Wednesday for artists, Michael Müller will give the traditional artist's speech.

Both the Ecumenical Vespers and the artist's speech will be held in German.

Further information can be found here

A special coming together on the occasion of Gallery Weekend Berlin, 2024 with The Fairest and Alien Athena Foundation for Art.
The evening highlight is a joint performance by artist Mauro Ventura (performed by Kianí del Valle) and opera singer Steve Katona, presented by The Fairest and Alien Athena Foundation for Art. A sensorial sound-bath experience offers an immersive and calming interlude amidst the non-stop nature of Gallery Weekend. This marks the first time that the two artistic positions come together:
"Two intertwined performances: mine and yours, which, through their interaction, create a new momentum"(Steve Katona).
The performance unfolds twice throughout the evening in two distinct rooms, activating the architecture within the vibrant space of Studio 11/11 on Potsdamer Straße.

Using the method of collage as a starting point, the interdisciplinary practice of Mauro Ventura evolves across painting, sculpture, installation and performance. Their investigation asserts itself on the research of ancient languages that study the occult, proposing a hyperreality or a parallel video-game like melting pot of syncretism.
These virtual realities indulge in ritualesque-like actions and ways of painting that question formats with the aim to transform social structures. Demons are a recurring motif in Ventura ́s practice, used as a means to explore the duality of things, invoking two opposite spheres of life and exploring the polarities of light and dark, visible and invisible, good and evil, presence and absence.

Kianí del Valle is a Berlin - Los Angeles based dancer, choreographer, director and performance curator originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Driven by anthropological, biological and sociological concepts, del Valle’s work merges the lines of contemporary dance and performance art within film, photography, architecture, pop culture, technology and sound. Her embodied practice is guided by the interdependence of physical exhaustion, intuitive groove, movement meditation, ritualistic practice, migratory journeys, and paranormal experiences. This is all intertwined within the craft of theatrics and amplified with a visual component that often taps into the magical, surreal, fictional and dystopic. Del Valle has developed a wide range of interdisciplinary solo works and is the founder, director and choreographer of the KDV PERFORMANCE GROUP.

"Two Intertwinded Performances" are two joint performances between Steve Katona and Mauro Ventura with Kianí del Valle.

The Alien Athena Foundation for Art is pleased to be able to support the performance, the artists and the curators.

Steve Katona is a German countertenor, composer, actor, and artist from Berlin. He studied opera at the UdK Berlin and works at the nexus of various artistic disciplines. His work encompasses a syncretism of musical, performative, and experimental elements that strive to dissolve the boundaries between genres.

For Gallery Weekend Berlin 2024, Steve Katona created a transcendent musical experience where vocals, an electrically modified zither, and a meditation bowl blended to craft a serene soundscape inspired by spiritual minimalism. Drawing from elements of sacred music like Gregorian chant, the performance offered a moment of reflection and inner peace. Without emphasizing religious contexts, Katona delved into the depths of the soul through music.

"Two Intertwinded Performances" are two joint performances between Steve Katona and Mauro Ventura with Kianí del Valle.

The Alien Athena Foundation for Art is pleased to be able to support the performance, the artists and the curators.

On the occasion of this year's Berlin Art Week, Michael Müller's 126-part work "Lektüre und Ablenkung" will be on display at his Berlin studio. Please join us for the opening reception and the book launch of the accompanying Catalogue Raisonné on Friday, 15 Sept 2023, 7-9 pm, Studio Michael Müller, Lise-Meitner-Straße 39-41, 10589 Berlin

"To write a poem after Auschwitz is barbaric", noted Theodor W. Adorno in 1949—and thus also questioned other forms of artistic engagement with the Holocaust. The symposium Am Abgrund der Bilder, which takes place in the context of the exhibition of the same name in the St. Matthäus-Kirche in Berlin, looks at various forms of artistic engagement with the Holocaust. What could be appropriate artistic forms of remembrance? Is it possible to approach the Shoah in images? The symposium takes up these questions and brings them into discussion with international image scholars, philosophers and philosophers of religion.

With lectures by Gideon Greif, Thomas Macho, Almut Shulamit Bruckstein, Hubertus von Amelunxen and Lukas Töpfer. Moderated by Julia Voss.

The opening lecture will be given by Benjamin Buchloh on 31 August at 7 pm.

The full program of the symposium can be found here.
Participation is free of charge, please register here.

In cooperation with Alien Athena Foundation for Art, Bard College Berlin, Evangelische Akademie zu Berlin, Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank, Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalt, and Deutsche Postcode Lotterie.

The exhibition "A Life in Pictures. A Portrait of Seeing for Rudolf Zwirner" traces the various stages of the gallery owner’s life as reflected in art. Works from different periods of origin are juxtaposed to create exciting dialogues, enabling conclusions to be drawn about existential themes of humankind.

Since 1956, all aspects of Rudolf Zwirner’s life have been closely linked with art, the development of which he decisively shaped in the second half of the twentieth century up to the present day: professionally as a gallery owner, secretary general of documenta II, cofounder of the world’s first art fair, and curator, but also privately in intensive exchange with artists. "Life in Pictures. A Portrait of Seeing for Rudolf Zwirner", shown on the occasion of his ninetieth birthday, makes a plea that art as an essential part of the human condition. The more than fifty works in the exhibition, which come from museums, private collections, as well as the Deutsche Bank Collection, which owes important acquisitions to the Zwirner gallery, paint an artistic portrait of this impressive, multi-faceted man. At the same time, however, they stand for the constants, ruptures, and developments in art and the art trade since the postwar period, which Zwirner decisively influenced and shaped. Rudolf Zwirner was already associated with most of the artists represented in the show in the early stages of their careers and participated in their later successes.

Featuring Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Louise Bourgeois, Serge Charchoune, Max Ernst, Dan Flavin, David Hockney, Martha Jungwirth, Konrad Klapheck, Astrid Klein, Maria Lassnig, Agnes Martin, Olaf Metzel, Henri Michaux, Piet Mondrian, Blinky Palermo, Francis Picabia, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, and others.

Curated by Philipp Bollmann and Michael Müller

Photo © 1971 by Angelika Platen

The first volume of the Catalogue Raisonné of Michael Müller’s artistic oeuvre also functions as an exhibition catalogue and is dedicated to the monumental painting "Der geschenkte Tag" [The Given Day], measuring approx. 6 × 65 m, which Michael Müller created for his solo exhibition at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, 2022/23. The 24-part painting as well as the exhibition as a whole elaborate on the Greek myth of the twins Castor and Polydeuces (Castor and Pollux), the Dioscuri. In addition to the history of the works’ creation and an extensive interview with the artist, essays, and a lyrical composition by American literary scholar and translator Stanley Lombardo update the story of the Dioscuri for the 21st century.

Michael Müller is showing a complex of works created between 2013 and 2022 at St. Matthäus-Kirche, Berlin, that is dedicated to the question of the possibilities and impossibilities of an artistic engagement with the Holocaust. In a 16-part work, Müller questions Gerhard Richter's "Birkenau" cycle by uncovering its layers and revealing mechanisms that, when examined closely, open up a space for discussion. What unites the works shown in the exhibition "Am Abgrund der Bilder" is that they represent an interrogation from different perspectives in a broad spectrum of artistic media: Painting, sculpture, photography and text. They evoke the openness of questioning, foregoing a definitive answer and instead allowing for constant discussion.

Exhibition in collaboration with Stiftung Kunstforum Berliner Volksbank. Sponsored by Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Kultur und Europa.

We are pleased to present the new website of Studio Michael Müller. Here you can now find artworks, exhibitions, publications and much more in a new clear and updated design.