Magnus Wallin »Solo«

"SOLO" consists of series of computer-generated images, entitled Monument, Formation, Exercise or Position. Even if the iconography of the human body is reminiscent of his previous film-works (such as Skyline, 2000, or Exercise Parade, 2001), these large-scale prints are autonomous artworks on their own and not based on or taken from film, what indicates a certain shift in Magnus Wallin's work. The human figure is set into scene as an ostensible weightless performer in a dark, empty space, which is only defined by millimetre graduation and a mirror-shiny polished ground.

The exercising body, a mixture of scientific anatomic model and superhuman muscle-machine, appears as a self-reproducing clone multiplied in endlessly varying positions and formations - almost like synchronized motion picture studies, which turn movement into static patterns and thus into the absurd. "SOLO" unveils man in the disquietingly ambiguous state of his highest perfection and humiliation at the same time. Wallin's technically highly elaborate, 3D computer animated films have stirred international attention during the past years. His works in general revolve around the position of the human body in visual media as well as a conceptual entity in anthropology, psychology, sociology, and philosophy. His aesthetic expressions are fetched from sources as heterogeneous as the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, Leni Riefenstahl's film of the 1936 Olympic games, the photography of Edward Muybridge, anatomic studies, computer games, and 20th century utopian imagery.

"SOLO" is the second solo exhibition of the Swedish Video artist Magnus Wallin at Galerie Nordenhake in Berlin. Magnus Wallin was born in 1965 in Malmö, Sweden, where he still lives and works. Recent solo shows include "Physical Paradise", James Cohan Gallery, "Solo", Tensta Konstahall and Malmö Konsthall (2002), "Physical Sightseeing", Boras Konsthall and Uppsala Konstmuseum (2001-2000), and "Skyline", Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2000). During the last years, his works have been presented among other venues at Art Unlimited, Art Basel (2002), Egofugal, 7th International Istanbul Biennial (2001), Hieronymus Bosch, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2001), Plateau of Mankind, 49th Venice Biennial (2001), Impakt Festival, Centraal Museum in Utrecht (2001), End of the World & Principle Hope, Kunsthaus Zürich (1999).