Michael Riedel

Since the late 1990s, Michael Riedel has advanced his own model of a self-sustaining artistic production, continuously using reproductions as a means to "reintroduce the system of art into the art system." Creating works in a diverse array of mediums, employing fabric, audio, video, film, installation, cultural events, and artistic happenings, Riedel often copies or recycles his own past work or art-related objects  to comment on, expand, or even invert the meaning and intention of the original object or event. Riedel often treats the materials accompanying his exhibitions, including catalogues, invitation cards, press releases, and checklists, as part of the work itself, with considerable attention paid to their design. 

Riedel has been the subject of solo exhibitions at institutions including the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt, the Kunstverein Hamburg, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt, and the Kunstraum Innsbruck. In 2012, Riedel participated in a group show, “Made in Germany Zwei,” that was jointly presented by the Sprengel Museum Hannover, Kunstverein Hannover, and kestnergesellschaft, Hanover. He was also invited by the Palais de Tokyo in Paris to create a series of three site-specific installations in the museum's event space. The first presentation, "Jacques comité [Giacometti]," was installed in July 2013, and the second, "Dual air [Dürer]," will be installed in April 2014. Additional group exhibitions include shows at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria, the Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Turin, the Tate Modern, the Kunsthalle Bern, and the Vienna Secession, as well as in the Lyon Biennale and the Moscow Biennial. 

Click here to take a close look at the mind-bending experiments of Michael Reidel.