In the series HMKV Video of the Month, HMKV presents current video works by international artists for the duration of one month each – selected by Inke Arns.
Magdalena von Rudy: König Mistico (King Mistico)
HMKV Video of the Month
On view 1 – 31 July 2015
A man wearing a freestyle wrestling (lucha libre) mask lies on a bed. He is knitting, watching TV, sewing, gluing, drinking water, making collages. The visual starting point for this video of a re-enactment was a photograph by Bruce Weber published a few years ago in the German Vogue. It shows the American artist Dash Snow donning a knitted balaclava, sitting on a bed surrounded by pillows and looking straight at the camera. Snow was the epitome of the young, riotous white artist whose work merged art and life. He lived fast and died young, a cliché of the ever youthful rebel. In this video the German-Turkish artist Hakan Eren is seen standing in the middle of a room and starting to rap. He seems to be telling a story, but soon his singing becomes faster, more rhythmical and determined. Eren, who is improvising his lines, becomes more and more agitated, finishing his performance in a trance-like state. In his high-powered rap he speaks about his background, his art and his hopes for the future. Drawing on his own experience, he highlights ethnic stereotypes in society and art and how they bias people’s perception of him as an artist.