Museum Kunst Palast Dedicates Major Solo Exhibition to the German Artist Klaus Mettig

DUSSELDORF.- Museum kunst palast dedicates a major solo exhibition to the artist Klaus Mettig (b. 1950 in Brandenburg), encompassing works from different creative periods. The show juxtaposes panorama photographs of the artist’s latest series Don’t be left behind with an earlier monumental photo wall installation, as well as four multipart slide projections dating from the 1970s and 1980s.

A socio-political approach
Owing to their panorama format the photographic works of the Düsseldorf-based artist open up an unusual, both critical and fascinating view of the world. The Düsseldorf exhibition presents a wealth of newer works in which Mettig focuses his attention on China, India and the USA. An underlying socio-political approach unites the oeuvre of Mettig, whose works invariably embraces reflections on perceptions and effects of the mechanisms of international politics.

The progressing development of globalisation
The work group Don’t be left behind has been in the process of being created since 2005 and consists of panorama photographs using the unusual format of 125 x 375 cm. The title chosen by Mettig hints at the threatening changes to urban living spaces which are motivically reflected in his work: the progressing development of globalisation in different cultural regions. Alongside Bhutan and Kathmandu, the artist places his particular focus on the metropolises New York and Dubai, as well as the Asian mega-cities Seoul, Delhi and Shanghai.

The post-Mao era, the divided Berlin and Moscow during the cold war
These large-scale photographs are juxtaposed with the black-and-white photographic work I-214 / 1979-1981, which Mettig exhibited at the documenta 7 in Kassel in 1982. In this expansive photo installation the artist gives unity and structure to a total of 2.568 individual black-and-white photographs which introduce a selection of news images broadcast on West German TV. The series of transparencies presented in the exhibition were made in 1978 in China, where Mettig recorded the events of the post-Mao era, as well as in divided Berlin from 1981-1983 and in Moscow in 1985 during the Cold War.

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