andreas muellerpohle

“Artificially Intelligent Image World”
Essay by Andreas Müller-Pohle discussing the impact of artificial intelligence on the medium of photography and outlining artistic strategies for a critical and reflective engagement with it. First published in European Photography 114, Winter 2023/24. Available in English, German, Polish, Slovenian and Chinese.

“Épreuves de la matière”, curated by Héloïse Conésa, presenting Digital Scores III (after Nicéphore Niépce) at the Bibliothèque nationale de France

 

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of May 4, 2023 on the transfer of my archive to the ZKM Karlsruhe

 

Mers et Rivières – Seas and Rivers
Photo and video works from The Danube River Project, Hong Kong Waters, and Kaunas upon the Rivers. 3 November 2021 – 16 January 2022, Pavillon Populaire, Montpellier, France. Curator: Gilles Mora. 144-page catalog published by Editions Hazan, Paris, with essays by Gilles Mora and Hubertus von Amelunxen

Dossiers for download in English (PDF, 4.2 MB) and French (PDF, 4.3 MB)

Interview with Andreas Müller-Pohle (1:45 min)

Tour of the exhibition with Gilles Mora and Andreas Müller-Pohle (15:41 min)

Andreas Müller-Pohle: Video Works 1996–2021
24 September – 24 October 2021, Białystok Interphoto 2021, Ludwik Zamenhof Centre, 19 Warszawska Street, Białystok, Poland. Curator: Pavel Vančát

“The exhibition in Bialystok provides the first overview of Müller-Pohle’s video works, beginning with the overwhelming Entropia (1996), a forceful ‘iconoclastic’ response to the decline of analog photography, executed by a huge industrial shredder. After further video works that reflect on the historical role of photography and the emerging digital age (Hiroshima, Araki at Work, Yumiko), Müller-Pohle turns to a new major topic, water, which he explores through the mediums of photography, video, and sound: The extensive Danube River Project (2005–2006) follows the entire course of the river in its cultural and ecological aspects, while the subsequent Hong Kong Waters (2009–2010) portrays the omnipresent waterscapes of the Asian megametropolis in hitherto unseen views. More recently, Müller-Pohle has turned to a new project cycle, again comprising photography, video and sound, entitled Studies on Traffic (2013–2021), in which he records patterns of movement in different parts of the world, portraying our civilization as a complex universe of interconnected anomalies that resist to be captured in a synchronized moment.” – Pavel Vančát

One of the works scheduled for the exhibition, Araki at Work, a 1996 documentary about a photo shoot by Nobuyoshi Araki at a love hotel in Tokyo, was objected to by the Director of the Białystok Cultural Centre for two explicit sexual scenes. After these were blacked out in consideration of underage visitors, the video was nevertheless banned: “In relation to presenting the work Araki at Work by Andreas Muller-Pohle with the use of black rectangles in the places that were quastionable (see Ietter from September 7, 2021) but leaving sound intact makes us disagree to make this work a part of the exhibition. Despite obstructing some parts of the picture, big part of the work is visible and leaving the sound where the artist’s voice has erotic overtones, the artist using a language culturary distinct  from european, identifles the work as expressively erotic. The change included does not alter the reception of the work.” The questionable sound actually consists of jokes (in Japanese) and laughter.

Andreas Müller-Pohle: Coincidences. A Select Retrospective
22 July – 28 September 2014, Prague City Gallery, House of Photography, Revoluční 5, 11000 Prague, Czech Republic. Curator: Pavel Vančát

“The Berlin-based artist Andreas Müller‑Pohle is one of the key figures engaged in the ontological as well as representational essence of photography since the mid 1970s. Since the 1990s, he has reflected on the radical changes in the essence of technical images. The constantly reoccurring question of the encoding and meaning of information and its dialectical opposition to entropy and chance point to the mutual influence of Müller‑Pohle’s work and the thinking of the Czech-born media philosopher Vilém Flusser. The artist’s ‘select retrospective’ in Prague consists of 17 series and projects: from his influential early ‘visualistic’ series of photographs to multi media works dealing with the transition between analogue and digital codes and the newest long term projects depicting current civilization in a global perspective.” – Pavel Vančát

 

Hong Kong Waters

Andreas Müller-Pohle: Hong Kong Waters. With an introduction by Oscar Ho. Available in a European edition by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, ISBN 978-3-86828-410-2, and an Asian edition by Asia One Books, Hong Kong, ISBN 978-988-16977-2-1. 96 pages, 63 color reproductions. Flexcover with dust jacket, 24.2 x 31.5 cm, EUR 39.90/HK$ 380.00. English/Chinese

“Codes & Waters” in Brno
7 September – 14 October 2012. Solo exhibition at Dům umění města Brna / The Brno House of Arts, Malinovského nám. 2, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic. Curator: Jana Vránová.

“Following his portrait of the Danube, a linear exploration of the river from source to mouth, Andreas Müller-Pohle turned his attention to the megacity of Hong Kong, tapping into it at selected points. His approach to the element of water in the series is very sensual – a real, physical plunge – and at the same time analytical, recognizing the source of all life in its changeable ecological system and as nature’s unique recycling mechanism.

Renewal, recirculation and obliteration – the artist consistently delivers vivid and precise images for this elementary cycle. Whether in his Cyclograms, in which he created photograms from shredded photo studio waste, or in his video Entropia, an equally succinct and stunning reply to every complaint about picture overload: the machine of blind destruction is a counterpart to the similarly blind, almighty information apparatus that we call computer, and the artist creates arrangements – subtle or absurd, but always poetic – that ask to what extent its language has taken control of the world.

Codes & Waters: The flow of water corresponds to the fluid nature of codes, particularly those of the digital age, as they are visualized first in Digital Scores, then in Face Codes, and lastly in the video Yumiko. Seen from this perspective they confront the fundamental criterion of analog photography: that which is rooted in fixation and definition. And it is exactly this fluidity – in addition to the qualities of simulation and lossless reproduction – that digital technology has to thank for its victory over the world of analog media.” – Boris von Brauchitsch

The Danube River Project
The Danube River Project book is now on Issuu. With an essay by Ivaylo Ditchev. Berlin: Peperoni Books, 2007. ISBN 3-9809677-5-1. 176 pages, 72 reproductions. Hardcover, 30×24 cm, EUR 42.00. English/German. To order a hard copy, go here

New Orleans Museum of Art
“What is a Photograph?” An exhibit tracing the history of photo techniques from 1840 onward at the New Orleans Museum of Art. The photographs were selected mostly from NOMA’s collection by photo curator Russell Lord. 20 April–19 August, 2012. – “Photography, it seems, is not one medium, but many.” (Russell Lord)

“flow, flow” at Photo Edition Berlin
9 December 2011–20 February 2012. Exhibited photo works: Cyclograms, Digital Scores, Face Codes, Atomic Laughter, The Danube River Project, Hong Kong Waters. Videos: Entropia, Yumiko, Hiroshima 29/3/01, Coasting, Zigzag, Vertical, Dark Waves, and Araki at Work (video edition of 99+IX). Opening speech (in German) by Hubertus von Amelunxen. Photo Edition Berlin, Ystaderstr. 14, 10437 Berlin, tel +49-(0)30-4171 7831

Hong Kong Arts Centre
Hong Kong Waters at Hong Kong Arts Centre, presented by Lumenvisum,
16–29 April 2011, Pao Galleries, 4–5/F, 2 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
“Hong Kong Waters, a photo/video/sound project by German media artist Andreas Müller-Pohle, brings two dimensions of Hong Kong together: its vertical urbanity and its horizontal alignment to the water. It is the first comprehensive portrait of Hong Kong seen from the perspective of the water, with never-before captured views of the many water sites this Asian mega-metropolis has to offer. The exhibition comprises three media: photography, using a half/half underwater technique already applied in a previous work by the artist, The Danube River Project (2005/2006); video, displayed in a variety of visual approaches to the water, from “Coasting”, where the recording camera is a plaything of the waves, to “Dark Waves”, an intriguing sight of Victoria Harbour at night; and sound, presented in the form of a water-focused audioscape of Hong Kong, composed by Japanese sound artist Shingo Inao. Hong Kong Waters was realized between January 2009 and December 2010. Hong Kong Arts Centre is the first venue to show this work.” (Tse Mingchong, Curator) – Partners: Lumenvisum, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, HP, Creative Promotions, Authentic Vision, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Monochrom. Exhibition feature on Hong Kong TV (in Chinese language). More info at Riverproject.net.

Gesshin-in, Kyoto
Projection installation of The Danube River Project at Gesshin-in Temple, Kyoto, 19–27 February 2011. Live performance by Shingo Inao on 19 February. Supported by the Berlin Senate Cultural Affairs Department

Uferhallen, Berlin
9 November–13 December, 2008. The Danube River Project, 3rd European Month of Photography. Uferhallen, Uferstr. 8–11, 13357 Berlin, Germany

Photobook Award
The Danube River Project book has been chosen as one of 22 new international titles to receive the Photobook Award 2007/08, nominated by German writer/curator Hans-Michael Koetzle: “A good photo book is more than just the sum of its good photos. A good photo book is the visual statement of a confident author. It follows an idea, has a message, ties together a theme following a clear concept. The Danube River Project fulfils all the above mentioned criteria. As a book it portrays an engaging as well as spatio-temporal project that has to be imagined at a junction of geography and ecology, history and presence, demarcation and opening: The Danube as a leitmotif for an intelligent and explosive story in images, for which the author has created a formal aesthetic that surprises. The Danube River Project is not Andreas Müller-Pohle´s first book, but it might be his best so far. It is proof of how the theorist and photographer is able to constantly reinvent himself. – Hans-Michael Koetzle

Trailer
“The Danube River Project” on YouTube

Book publication: The Danube River Project
Andreas Müller-Pohle: The Danube River Project. With an essay by Ivaylo Ditchev. Berlin: Peperoni Books, 2008. ISBN 3-9809677-5-1. 176 pages, 72 reproductions. Hardcover, 30 x 24 cm, EUR 42.00. English/German. Available through Vice Versa Vertrieb, Amazon or at your local bookstore. Download book flyers in English or Deutsch (pdf, 670 KB)

Europäisches Donaumuseum, Ingolstadt
8 July–29 September, 2007. Exhibition “The Danube River Project”. Stadtmuseum Ingolstadt, Auf der Schanz 45, 85049 Ingolstadt, Germany

Städtische Galerie, Erlangen
14 April–3 June, 2007. Exhibition “Foto/Video/Sound. Arbeiten 1995–2006”. Palais Stutterheim, Marktplatz 1, 91054 Erlangen, Germany

Donaumarkt, Regensburg
10–31 October, 2006. Multimedia installation, Donaumarkt, Ostermeier-Ruine, Regensburg, Germany

Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade
21 August–10 September, 2006. Exhibition “The Danube River Project”. Knez Mihailova 6/I, YU-11000 Belgrade, Serbia

 

Central European House of Photography, Bratislava
28 June–30 July, 2006. Exhibition “The Danube River Project.” Central European House of Photography, Prepostská 4, 814 99 Bratislava, Slovakia

Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum, Ulm
23 March–11 June, 2006. Exhibition “The Danube River Project.” Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum, Schillerstr. 1, 89077 Ulm, Germany

Danube River Project IV
25 October–6 November, 2005. Fourth field trip: Drobeta-Turnu Severin, Vidin, Giurgiu, Rousse, Braila, Tulcea, Sulina (with Ulla Schnorr)

Danube River Project III
09–14 September, 2005. Third field trip: Vukovar, Novi Sad, Belgrade

Danube River Project II
5–11 August, 2005. Second field trip: Esztergom, Budapest, Dunaújváros (with Katharina Müller-Pohle, Claudia Martins and Zsolt Petrányi). Photos: Zsolt Petrányi

Danube River Project I
11–24 July, 2005. First field trip: Donaueschingen, Ulm, Donauwörth, Ingolstadt, Regensburg, Passau, Linz, Vienna, Bratislava (with Ulla Schnorr)

Aura Gallery, Shanghai
15 April–5 May, 2005. Exhibition “codeZone: Andreas Müller-Pohle, Digital Works 1995–2005.” Curator: Gu Zheng. Catalog download (1.5 MB) here. Aura Art Gallery, 5/F, 713 Dong Da Ming Lu, Shanghai 200080, China

Guangzhou Photo Biennial 2005
“Re(-)viewing the City,” Conference on 19/20 January, 2005
Lecturers: Gu Zheng, Kasahara Michiko, Andreas Müller-Pohle. “Arts, Automats. Concepts of European Urban Photography” Guandong Museum of Art, Er-sha Island, Guangzhou, China