Once upon a time in mass media – Digital montages and tapestries by Margret Eicher (Forum for Contemporary Art)

“Once upon a time…” – About pictures that “lie”

Tapestries and montages by Margret Eicher in Neuenbürg Castle

On Friday, March 1, 2013, at 19 p.m., Neuenbürg Castle will open the special exhibition "Once upon a time in mass media – Digital Montages by Margret Eicher" in the Forum for Contemporary Art, which will run until May 5. The Ladenburg-born artist is known for her enormous tapestries depicting celebrities known from the press in unexpected scenarios, often familiar from art history. Whether it's a reasoning Peter Sloterdijk or a sexy Lara Croft, a friendly Superman or Uschi Obermaier from the 1968 commune, what all these VIPs have in common is their presence in the media and its visual power. Margret Eicher conceives her sharp-tongued ideas on the basis of this ubiquitous and readily available imagery, first processing them on screen. Through this digitization process, she simultaneously demonstrates the manipulability of images. So, can images lie?

Seen in this light, the title "Once upon a time in mass media" makes sense. This phrase, familiar from fairy tales – i.e., invented stories intended to entertain with hidden truths and lead to new insights – heralds an exhibition that pursues precisely this goal. The tapestries, watercolors, and collages of artist Margret Eicher are conceived as a magnificent visual cinema that knows how to tell wondrous stories with fairytale-like staging and heroic protagonists. And at the very latest, when supermodel Linda Evangelista writhes lasciviously in front of an imposing Chinese long-range missile in an ancient-looking landscape, and this gigantic tapestry bears the title "Zeus Appears to Eve in the Form of a Rocket," we come to the realization: Is it all a fairy tale or is it reality?

Admission is free. A catalogue, "Once upon a time in mass media – Margret Eicher, Digital Tapestries," will be published. 120 pages, Hatje Cantz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-7757-3498-1, price: €40. Further information is available at www.margret-eicher.de

Dates:

Sun, 17 March, 11 a.m.: Artist talk with Margret Eicher

Curator and contact:

Jacqueline Maltzahn-Redling

Neuenbürg Castle Museum

75305 Neuenbürg

Phone 49/7082

j.maltzahn@schloss-neuenbuerg.de

www.schloss-neuenbuerg.de