Das Leben der Anderen
Installation, 2011-2012
The piece consists of 100 sheets of copy paper. Each paper comprises closely spaced handwritten text fragments in English, German, French and Swedish and is carried out with ordinary office ball pens. The work was an attempt to assume the role of a rational Stasi officer, referring to the movie The Lives of Others (orginal title – Das Leben der Anderen). Mügge systematically collected traces that various people leave in the WWW, mainly on Facebook- the community which plays a key role in modern revolutions.
This document of time functions as a mirror of different societies, deals with delicate topics like surveillance and the lack of freedom, enlightens the absurd contrast between the digital revolution and manual traditions, investigates the power of the written word and explores the subversive and revolutionary potential that internet offers to both powerful and powerless people worldwide. The spectator gets the chance to be a kind of voyeur, following both complex and contradictory thoughts through the eyes of an amount of carefully selected individuals. The four chosen languages reflect artists own family background, but also represent the contemporary globalized melting pot where cultural borders are more undefined than ever before.
Artist's Bio:
An emerging German-Swedish interdisciplinary artist based in Umeå, Sweden. He received his MFA from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts in 2011. In his practice he works in the intersection of painting, drawing, found objects and installation. His projects, often based on expanding collections, can result in research-oriented and expressive site-specific, often monumental and narrative sculptural pieces. In his experimental approach the sensual aspect is crucial as its function is to get the viewer emotionally involved in the artwork, and furthermore stimulate his intellectual curiosity.