M HKA Ensembles

Artist Novel, language : English, publisher : Montez Press.

Literary synopsis

Lieske self-consciously gives his memoirs a sense of artistic importance by dramatizing even the most ordinary moments in his life, stamping a constructed meaning onto inconsequential events and routines. The chapter entitled ‘Swimming Badge’ details his childhood swimming lessons, while the section called ‘Flute’ gives an account of Lieske’s instrument preferences. In between these banal accounts are pockets of sensationalism, where Lieske describes in intense, colourful detail his unrequited love, his first homosexual relationship and his infidelities. The first-person narrative makes us feel as if we are getting an honest insight into the artist’s psychology, but his over-sharing can be discomfiting. As I read Lieske’s description of his fetish for violence, the bullet shells on the floor and the paramilitary environment in which I found myself took on a disconcerting new significance. I became aware that a type of violence was being exerted upon me: if I wanted to read Lieske’s book, I was forced to do so in surroundings entirely dictated by the artist. Indeed, there is a distinct sense that Lieske enjoys exploiting the power dynamic between viewer and artist: the creation of a book that can only be read in the exhibition space demands far more time and attention than we might ordinarily give to a single artwork. The book may be neither well-written nor profound, but we’re compelled to read it, lured in by its confessions, sensationalism and the exclusivity of the experience. It’s as if Lieske relishes playing on our more instinctive human traits than our intellectual capabilities.

- Radhika Kapila

Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice

From February to June 2015, mumok showed a solo exhibition by the German artist David Lieske. Entitled Platoon (RL-X), this exhibition addressed the close connection between legend and work and between the person and the product of the artist. It was the central premise of this exhibition that the artist and the work stand in a complex relationship to each other, and that today the borders between life and work are fluid. The exhibition focused on Lieske’s autobiography in book form, I Tried to Make this Work, in which he tells the story of his life in an idealized retrospective. The text is based on conversations over several weeks recorded by the author Ingo Niermann and was translated into English by Michael Ladner. The book was presented in an edition of 300 copies, as an autobiographical sketch that could only be read on site, and under heightened security, relating to the specific conditions of its commission and production and also its connection to a specific location and situation.

In the course of describing his own life, Lieske also presented the social network within which he operates. He is a co-founder of the record label Dial Records, and artist and manager at the Mathew Gallery. From his extended circle of friends, he invited the Villa Design Group, which is represented by his gallery, to create a parallel architectural intervention within the mumok Ludwig Goes Pop exhibition. By extending into this exhibition, Lieske’s show demonstrated the afterlife and ubiquitous role of Pop Art in contemporary art.

Novel's website

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