Following on from his artistic positioning in the solo show at MUMOK Vienna in 1993, this exhibition of 80 works (photo installations, light objects, media sculptures) by Michael Schuster (born 1956 in Graz) presents a review of his creative achievement over the past 15 years. In addition, older works are reconstructed with contemporary methods and concepts that have been realised for the first time are presented. Questions about truth and the perception of reality as well as the construction of reality are Schuster’s concern.
The camera itself, whose images allegedly describe the outside world in objective terms, is pushed into Schuster’s thematic focus. The inside of the camera, the objective, becomes an objective itself, a trigger controlled by Schuster, but acting autonomously.
This focus on the camera, the tool, is shown in rooms that were specifically constructed for the exhibition. Its visitors are increasingly involved in its processes and become image triggers themselves. This expansion of the perception of the world from photographic documentation to sculptural spaces can be experienced amidst a Libyan amphitheatre, which is transferred into an interior space and can be virtually entered. In the knowledge of the impossibility of objectively representing the world, Schuster questions the phenomenon of a depictability of reality on various different, often irritating and ironic levels and extends our range of reflection to experienceable deceptions. What remains at the end is the artist’s statement: “There is no secret.”
