Jonathan Meese

'I carve out open spaces for myself in which no one is present any longer. There is no one underway there any more'. Jonathan Meese Aside from painting and sculpture, the work of Jonathan Meese also encompasses installations, performances, collages, videos and theatrical pieces. In consistently overladen sets encompassing pictures, texts, signs, objects as well as his own neologisms dealing with all manners of power-hungry people, myths and great historical figures, stars and starlets from pop culture or his heroes from film and fiction, Meese creates his own universe far from the norm. It is inhabited by Caligula, Stalin, the Marquis de Sade, Richard Wagner, Balthus or Dr. No, just to name a few of the persons and figures to whom Meese assigns new contexts of meaning, whereby he deliberately crosses conventional thresholds and follows his own rules. Meese has now rediscovered Atlantis and reaches The Arch-State of Atlantisis in the exhibition in Rolandseck am Rhein curated by Daniel J. Schreiber. This catalogue presents the complete sculptural work of Jonathan Meese in a single volume and includes a performance documentation on DVD. Published on the occasion of the exhibition Jonathan Meese: Erzstaat Atlantisis at Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, May August 2009. English and German text.