Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
The Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck is host to Jonathan Meese’s first major retrospective since Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen presented his works in 2006.  The show features nearly all of the artist’s sculptural work together for the first time, a number of large paintings, and sound and film installations. At the opening of the exhibition, Meese gave a performance, proclaiming the Arch-State of Atlantisis on the banks of the Rhine. Meese takes up the mantle of Joseph Beuys, who used Atlantis as a symbol of the loss of natural spirituality. Beuys’s work touching on Atlantis, including his film trilogy ‘Atlantis,’ is represented in the exhibition, as well as work that came out of the Atlantis-Project of Helga and Hans-Jürgen Müller. Curated by Daniel Schreiber, the exhibition places Meese’s work in dialogue with that of Beuys and the Atlantis-Project. The exhibition is aimed at presenting “a world formula” that Meese claims will lead humanity towards the “dictatorship of art,” a utopic future that is a foundational strain in his work.
Arp Museum
Jonathan Meese: Erzstaat Atlantisis [Jan Bauer]
Jonathan Meese and his Ore State of Atlantisis [Goethe Institute]
Arts.21: Jonathan Meese – Arch-State of Atlantisis [Deutsche Welle]
Jonathan Meese declares the ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Meese reconstructs the ruins of Atlantis as described by Plato, setting it against a “total future” of the dictatorship of art. In the museum’s elevator shaft, Meese has installed a “volcanic pressure chamber” that spews out nostalgic tradition as “absolute novelty” like lava.
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ runs May 1-August 30, 2009 at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck in Remagen, Germany.
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Jonathan Meese declares the ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
Installation view of Jonathan Meese’s ‘Arch-State of Atlantisis’ via Jan Bauer
