Michael Riedel

Michael Riedel and Museum Haus Konstruktiv have maintained a close relationship for several years. Major bodies of work by this prominent contemporary artist featured in programmatically significant group exhibitions at the museum in 2019 and 2021, and two of his artworks are in the museum’s collection. The artist has now created a new work for Haus Konstruktiv.

This renewed collaboration was prompted by the museum’s relocation to Löwenbräukunst-Areal, where Haus Konstruktiv was able to move into premises in the eastern section at Limmatstrasse 268 and the western section at Limmatstrasse 270, on different floors. At the museum’s invitation, Riedel has now developed a wall and ceiling installation. It responds to this spatial situation and visually interconnects the various levels – from the entrance area in the eastern section to the mezzanine and through to the first floor in the western section.

The rental agreement drawn up for the new site forms the basis of Riedel’s graphic composition, which unfolds across a total of 258 square metres within the architectural structures of Löwenbräukunst-Areal. Stretching out extensively in four different directions and superimposed on itself, the rental agreement is transformed according to purely formal aesthetic criteria (variable formatting of words, letters and lines), resulting in streams of text that flow through the premises. Typographically highlighted, the word ‘konstruktiv’ emphasises a sense of self-description with regard to the location. Riedel uses the superimposed letter ‘k’ from the text to construct colour fields within the pattern. This gives rise to numerous graphic elements that illustrate regulation of the museum’s use of space at Löwenbräukunst-Areal.

Since the late 1990s, Riedel has been interested in the art world’s collateral phenomena. His preferred ‘materials’ include transcriptions of communications within the art system. Riedel is known for an oeuvre that oscillates between fine art, applied graphics and literature, while exploring their marginal zones.

Alongside his major exhibitions in museums and at internationally renowned galleries, Riedel recently published the novel Abstract (Spector Books, Leipzig) in which he summarises his long-running email correspondence with his New York gallery. This had previously been published in the form of banknotes – so-called Riedels.
 

A multi-year installation that connects the eastern and western sections of the Museum Haus Konstruktiv.

MICHAEL RIEDEL (b. 1972) lives and works in Frankfurt a. M.
He is a professor of painting and graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig.

Artworks in public collections (selection)
Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Albertina, Vienna
Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt a. M.
Städel Museum, Frankfurt a. M.

Solo exhibitions (selection)
ˈzɛlpstbəˈʃʁaɪ̯bʊŋ (Self-Description), Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2019)
Grafik als Ereignis (Graphic Art as Event), Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt a. M. (2018)
CV [Curriculum Vitae], Kunsthalle Zurich (2017)
Untitled (Museum), Museum der Moderne, Saarbrücken (2017)
Michael Riedel reads Oskar, MAK Vienna (2014)
Dual Air [Dürer], Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013)
Kunste zur Text, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt a. M. (2012)
Vier Vorschläge zur Veränderung (Four Proposals for Change), Städel Museum, Frankfurt a. M. (2009)

Group exhibitions (selection)
Kunst Museum Winterthur (2024), Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich (2019 and 2021), Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur (2018), Städel Museum, Frankfurt a. M. (2017), Künstlerhaus Halle für Kunst & Medien, Graz (2016), Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2015 and 2018), German Architecture Centre DAZ, Berlin (2015), Kunsthalle Zurich (2015), Irish Museum of Modern Art, Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin (2013), Sprengel Museum Hanover (2012), Swiss Institute, New York (2011), Kunsthaus Bregenz (2011), Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin (2010), Tate Modern, London (2009)