Diktat is premiering a new body of work by German artist Eric Meier. Meier, who was born in 1989 in East Berlin, is known to bring together personal biographical points with socio-political topics in his artistic practice. The historical period after the collapse of the socialist system is of particular interest to the artist.

 

In his works with photography, sculpture and video, Meier conveys the effects of the fall of the Berlin wall and he tries to draw lines from the mistakes and omissions of the 90s and 00s in East Germany to the present nationalist populist movements, not only in Germany but also outside. Meier’s work investigates symbols of collective failure and its aesthetics. He is searching for traces of a society seemingly left behind, and along this journey, he finds pictures originating some decades back but that are relevant and politically urgent today more than ever.

 

Eric Meier’s exhibition Diktat at Valletta Contemporary (VC) happens at a time when the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall takes place, when Malta finds itself to execute its part of the EU’s external border, and worldwide nationalism and authoritarian thinking have reached an unpredicted level. Meier takes these current topics as a context for an artistic investigation, to confront the irreducible plurality of our world.

 

Using large black and white photographs, video and sound, as well as sculptural works and an on-site installation work developed specifically for VC’s exceptional architecture, Diktat aims to confront the visitor with unconscious perceptions of our present.

 

Starting with a strong interest in places, the artist is questioning the status quo of the conditions and agencies of the social and political structures related to these entities. However, Eric Meier’s works can be considered as screens, open to the viewer’s own experiences, memories and conceptions of identity rather than historic documents.

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Text by Markus Summerer

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Portrait  by Julie Becquart

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Eric Meier (B 1989). was born in East Berlin, GDR, grew up in Frankfurt an der Oder and currently lives in Berlin. From 2010 - 2012 Meier studied at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, from 2012 - 2018 at the Acadamy for visual Arts Leipzig (HGB), with Prof. Heidi Specker and from 2016-2017 as a guest student in the class of Prof. Manfred Pernice at the UDK Berlin. Eric Meier was a scholarship holder of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and completed his studies in February 2018 at the HGB with distinction.

 

In his artistic practice, Meier interweaves individual, autobiographical, and socio-political issues. The consequences of abrupt social changes, caused by the collapse of real existing socialism, are the starting point for his critical reflections. Coming from photography, he expands the medium to include sculpture, video, text and spatial installation interventions. Detached from pure depiction, he approaches his themes through the material, combining hard surfaces, fragile objects and abstract images. From the failures of the 90s and 00s in reunited Germany, he draws psychologizing conclusions about the current political situation. Questions of social identity, nostalgia, belonging, failure, and doubt are repeatedly raised in his works.

 

Eric Meier's works have been exhibited in numerous venues such as Halle 14 - center for contemporary art, Leipzig, at fructa space Munich, at HGB gallery Leipzig, at the prelude to the Transmediale Festival Berlin, AEG Nuremberg and in the Hoffmann Collection in Berlin.

 

Markus Summerer  has chosen Kunsthalleperleberg as his curatorial name, creating the group shows Prignitz Biennale 2017 in Perleberg, Germany and Lies About2019 at Gussglashalle in Berlin. He was the director of Barbara Thumm Galerie and has worked at Texte zur Kunst magazine. Only recently the Kunsthalleperleberg curatorial project evolved into the contemporary art gallery MOUNTAINS.