Simon Mullan: chronos

In the organizer's words:

For chronos, Mullan has dug into the depths of his artistic archive and is presenting a large-format video installation in remixed form in the main room of the gallery. 25 screens and monitors form a walk-in scenery in which visitors can travel through time to retrace the artist's past using fragmented moving images. The never-before-seen collection of videos recorded on MiniDV between 2004 and 2014 captures candid moments from Mullan's formative years.

The installation reveals a challenging story that pushes the boundaries of both private and political storytelling. Mullan turns his lens on people, showing early performances in Stockholm, his work with refugees in Vienna and his commitment to people with special needs, all the while contouring his artistic identity. These moments appear asynchronous and unfold in a wandering continuous loop. Each viewer encounters a unique sequence that questions the linear narrative and allows film to be experienced anew.

With chronos, Mullan invites us to rethink memory, history and artistic development, offering a personal yet universal reflection on the passage of time. The exhibition provides insights into the artist's life - his confrontations, experiments and revelations.

The exhibition is accompanied by a soundscape that enhances its sensual effect, which Ed Davenport created especially for the occasion in collaboration with Mullan. The sounds synchronize and abstract time in conjunction with the images and underline the interplay between past and present in the show.

An essay on the exhibition by Anna Catharina Gebbers, curator at Hamburger Bahnhof - Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, will be published in German and English on our website and available in the gallery in time for the opening.

Mullan's practice encompasses painting, sculpture and installation art; video and performance, the media in which he was trained in the transmedia art program at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Royal College of Art in Stockholm, remain central to his work. Through observation of and participation in various subcultures, documentation and the reuse of burdened, brand-associated or appropriated readymade materials, he points out how abstraction arises from the everyday. chronos is the first major exhibition dedicated specifically to Mullan's work on video, which, together with his performances, forms a parallel strand alongside sculptural works such as Monument to the Common (2016), Popularis (Tresen) (2020-2022), a room installation at the Haubrok Foundation and a permanent wall installation at Berghain (2021) for the show STUDIO BERLIN organized by the Boros Foundation.