SARIEV CONTEMPORARY GALLERY

We don’t know what M is or is doing right now and if this even matters. We assume that it could matter. Or not. “M” is an enigmatic riddle, an assumption about what could be if we only tried hard enough to let loose. Viennese artists Christoph Meier and Ute Müller’s work on aesthetic issues is tackled from different angles, pursuing the everyday through thoughts and actions that are firmly rooted in life experiences and reality. It is all about the social meaning of a structure.

The artists will collaborate on an installation conceived exclusively for the space of Sariev Gallery in Plovdiv to investigate the relationship between human space and the pictorial. The installation, consisting of paintings, architectural structures, drawings and sculptural references, defines a space where the viewer is immediately captured by beauty that has its origins in the history of twentieth century abstraction. Yet this is only a transitory emphasis, an instant of burning passion, which is then exposed to the artists’ critique, revealing a tendency to question that same tradition.

The result is a multi-perspective game on different surfaces where the imaginary and the real are intertwined, where poetry and narrative are balanced by more physical, pragmatic needs, and where man is still at the heart of matter, oscillating between illusion and reality.

BLACK PAGES is another social space, a joint project of Müller and Meier, and another Viennese artist, Nick Oberthaler. The artists publish their own magazine, Black Pages, which will be available at artnewscafe, a busy point for Plovdiv’s art scene, situated right next to the Sariev gallery.

BLACK PAGES is a monthly artist fanzine with a circulation of 300.
BLACK PAGES comes out in A5 format, featuring a total of 20 black & white pages.
Each month BLACK PAGES invites an artist to collaborate on it and names the issue after his/her forename.
BLACK PAGES is Austrian. 50% Austrian artists, 50% from other countries.
BLACK PAGES likes equal opportunity: 50% women artists, 50% male artists.
BLACK PAGES is named after a song by Frank Zappa and follows his compositional method.
BLACK PAGES doesn’t tell its artists what to do.
BLACK PAGES is produced very quickly.
BLACK PAGES has to be purchased before you can look at it.
BLACK PAGES likes artist collectives because there is always someone to blame.
BLACK PAGES is like an exhibition and loves release parties.

In Plovdiv, BLACK PAGES will present 3 new issues inviting Bulgarian artists to join this very exciting project.