Ed Atkins, Espace Louis Vuitton Munich, 2022. Image Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
From 4th March to 14th August, Espace Louis Vuitton München will be home to Two Burlesques, an exhibition dedicated to Ed Atkins, a British born artist who defines himself as a visual artist, a writer, a poet, a screenwriter and a musician. This exhibition is evidence of Fondation Louis Vuitton’s ongoing mission of showcasing holdings from the Collection to an international audience through the “Hors-les-murs” programme, which is shown at Espace Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Munich, Venice, Beijing, Seoul and Osaka.
Digital imagery, and its impact on the human experience, is a prevalent theme throughout Atkins’ work and is one that he has been exploring consistently throughout his career. His video installations feature 3D characters, often depicting himself, that are “both ridiculously alive and completely dead”. His work gathers inspiration from the vast realm of literature, bringing the philosophical work of Derrida and Paul de Man into the digital art space as he explores the relationship between man and machine.
Ed Atkins, Espace Louis Vuitton Munich, 2022. Image Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
Ed Atkins, Espace Louis Vuitton Munich, 2022. Image Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.
In his latest exhibition at Espace Louis Vuitton München, Ed Atkins brings together two works that belong to the Collection; Us Dead Talk Love (2012) and Even Pricks (2013). The former proposes a meditation on love and death in the form of an autobiographical confession between two severed heads, to the sound of the musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Meanwhile, Even Pricks (2013) shares a series of reflections on depression in an immersive, complex, yet jubilant experience.
Prior to the Ed Atkins Two Burlesques exhibition, Espace Louis Vuitton München exhibited Cao Fei’s My Future Is Not A Dream, another exhibition that plays with the idea of reality vs virtual reality, digital versus physical and how technology can affect the human experience. Fei is an artist whose multimedia installations and videos explore the relationship between real life, the collective utopia and personal aspirations of a younger generation immersed in an urbanised, digitised culture. Fascinated with the infinity of the Internet, Fei investigates classism, capitalism and isolation through her work; most notably in her virtual world RMB CITY: A Second Life City Planning (2007). We interviewed Fei back in 2018 about truth, her early encounter with the internet and why we suffer from pre-internet nostalgia. You can read the full interview here.
Ed Atkins, Espace Louis Vuitton Munich, 2022. Image Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
Ed Atkins’ Two Burlesques is available to view from 4th March to 14th August at Espace Louis Vuitton München. Book your visit here.