17 february 2023, Wouter van den Eijkel
Retelling Untold Tales from Mokum
In Retelling Untold Tales from Mokum, the first exhibition by Christoph and Sebastian Mügge at Galerie Fontana, the brothers toy with the idea that it is impossible to retell historical stories flawlessly or objectively. They prefer to add false information and new elements to their playful installation in order to arrive at new stories.
As anyone who's watched the Netflix series The Crown knows, when a story is told well, it's hard not to take the dramatized version of the past for the truth. Yet, there is a void between the series and reality and only the latter is a bit harder to reconstruct and retell.
The Mügges are well aware of this and combine fact and fiction in the back of the former chocolate factory on Lauriersgracht. By adding elements like 1,100 metres of crushed aluminium foil, 4,500 paper balls and old building materials to their installation, which explores the relationship between Calvinism and the Dutch custom of raising curtains, new stories emerge.
Christoph & Sebastian Mügge, Airplane, 2023, Galerie Fontana
Sebastian (1981) and Christoph (1983) Mügge were born in Bonn, Germany, to Swedish-German parents. Sebastian graduated from Umea Art Academy in Sweden in 2011, while Christoph studied in Dusseldorf. They each have their speciality – Christophe makes sculptures while Sebastian draws – but together they make large-scale site-specific installations that are often about the place or city where the installation is located.
The brothers live and work in Sweden. They were not on the radar of gallery owner Joris Montens, but he quickly became convinced of the uniqueness of their work. “We receive portfolios almost every day. Usually, these aren’t very interesting, but they sent us a targeted email with an impressive track record and lots of visuals from previous exhibitions, which immediately made the difference," says Montens.
Christoph & Sebastian Mügge, Door, 2023, Galerie Fontana
This is your first show in the Netherlands. The installation requires quite some space. Did you take that into account when approaching Fontana, which has enough room for this?
It is our first show in the Netherlands as a duo, but we have both had exhibitions in Enschede. We prefer exhibition spaces with a unique character because our work responds to specific architectural elements and Galerie Fontana's main room had the perfect premises for our installation.
I noticed that most of your site-specific installations reflect on the history of the surroundings of the location in which the installation is placed. The installation centres around the Dutch tradition of open-curtained windows and its relation to Calvinism. Why did you pick that element and how does it relate to the difficulty of historical correctness when it comes to retelling stories?
The installation contains a lot of Dutch clichés like narrow houses that we use in new contexts to expand and alter their meaning. The uncurtained Dutch window is a powerful metaphor of a cultural difference to its neighbouring countries, but also should not be taken as truth because differences between nations are often simplified and exaggerated. More universally, the window can be seen as a picture frame or filter bubble through which your own world is seen.
The installation also features physical windows, some 4,500 orange paper balls and 1,100 metres of aluminium foil – all made on the spot using local items. Is this how you typically work?
In terms of our working method of repetition and exaggeration – and the combination of various expressions – it is a good example of how we work, but we also usually introduce some materials that we had never used before, such as the windows. Working on spot can be a challenge because we have to leave our comfort zone, but at the same time, it is such a joy to incorporate carefully selected material from a local context and present it in a completely new way.
Christoph & Sebastian Mügge, Dog and Man, 2023, Galerie Fontana
So, you had a pre-conceived notion before you headed out to Amsterdam. In this case, to add local elements to like the windows. Is that right?afreizen en voegen daar ter plaatse lokale elementen, zoals de ramen, aan toe.
e had some ideas before we arrived because we try to prepare as best as possible, but we were also fully aware that a lot could happen after arriving in Amsterdam and were open to the unexpected is part of our process. We never know what material we will find locally and we were really lucky to randomly find such special items on the streets of Amsterdam. It was a wonderful surprise to find all that odd stuff during our daily treasure hunting!
For a while, we had been wanting to incorporate reclaimed windows from demolished buildings, so we had to find a place where we could collect them. Joris Montens (from Galerie Fontana) helped us come into contact with Jan van IJken Oude Bouwmaterialen in Eemnes, who let us borrow windows for the exhibition.
Christoph & Sebastian Mügge, "Emergency Food“, 2018, Galerie Fontana
Can you also explain the function of the aluminium foil in the installation?
We like using unorthodox everyday materials in unusual ways and we altered the aluminium foil so that it looked different than usual. At first sight, the shiny patterns on the gallery floor that tie together the different elements of the installation even look like cast aluminium. These flat aluminium foil snakes serve as a kind of cable network with various narrative threads, yet are also the opposite, as the material can reflect and absorb radio waves and consequently, interfere with their transmission. The aluminium foil also refers to its function to preserve, but instead of preserving just food, we interpret its function in a broader sense.
What do you want viewers to walk away with?
It is up to the viewers themselves to make their own interpretations. Some will feel happy seeing the vibrant colours and nostalgic items that bring back personal memories. Others might have a deeper critical reflection on sustainability after hearing that all the Christmas decorations, keyboards and other unused things that were still unpacked would have been discarded immediately if we hadn't found them by chance. After a while, viewers will almost certainly have a false memory of the show and mix it up with other exhibitions they have seen.
Christoph & Sebastian Mügge, "Container Turtle”, 2018, Galerie Fontana
What are you working on now? What will be your next project?
Right now, we are working on an installation for Galleri BOX in Gothenburg, Sweden, that represents the home of a fictitious, deceased and forgotten person from Gothenburg. Later this year, we will also have an exhibition at space52 (Athens, Greece), KIC (Zagreb, Croatia) and other international venues.
Retelling Untold Tales from Mokum by Christoph and Sebastian Mügge is on display at Galerie Fontana through 11 March.
