The exhibition “Freedom & Independence” borrows its name from Bjørn Melhus' eponymous film Freedom & Independence from 2014. The show will use its title as both, a motto and a theme, while understanding 'freedom' and 'independence' as value and virtue, especially in the year 2020.
It is conceived as an evolving group show with Mehlus' work at its core: This experimental short questions the current global ideological paradigm shifts towards new forms of religious capitalism by confronting ideas and quotes of the self-proclaimed objectivist philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand with evangelical contents of US- American mainstream movies. This contemporary fairy tale, in which Melhus performs all characters himself, was partly shot in a Berlin morgue, known today as Ebensperger gallery, and new urban environments in Istanbul. Against the backdrop of an unfathomable megalopolis, in a story that follows the associative qualities of a dream logic, the protagonists quote from concepts of neo-liberal elitism, and a mix of religious delusions and hallucinations of the apocalypse.
The exhibition will examine themes implied by the film and draw variations from other artists' contributions. They will be juxtaposed with Freedom & Independence in and at its centre. The works will range from spacial to drawings, from photographs to paintings. It will be held in two different locations:
the gallery at Plantagenstraße 30, 13347 Berlin and in the seven rooms of an apartment in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf at Meinekestraße 5, third floor, 10719 Berlin.
