<p>Christian Philipp Müller is among the leading figures of Institutional Critique, together with his peers Andrea Fraser, Renée Green, Fred Wilson, Mark Dion, and Tom Burr. He is known for his site-specific installations, performative sculptures, and photographic works, conceived for documenta, Venice Biennale, international museums and renowned art-galleries.</p> <p><i>Global Portraits</i> reunites the works, first presented in 2000 under the title <i>A Sense of Place</i> in the legendary gallery of Colin DeLand in New York, American Fine Arts, Co.</p> <p><i>“A Sense of Place brings together a few of my recent projects produced in Austria, Germany, Spain, and Switzerland, that deal with identity issues from local to more global levels. They are all concerned with the portrait in the most expansive sense of the word and show that local differences from place to place are becoming less and less significant. Our lives have many parallels, that can be traced, plotted and mapped. Our tastes and preferences are becoming interchangeable.”</i></p> <p><i>(…)</i></p> <p><i>“In 1999 I received an invitation to do the annual report for Ringier AG, the biggest Swiss publishing company, as an artist following earlier projects by Clegg & Guttmann and Sylvie Fleury. After an initial proposition by the curator Beatrix Ruf, I visited all countries, where the publisher is active. Between September and December 1999, I travelled extensively in Eastern Europe and Asia. My focus was on local adaptations of periodicals that have proved successful in Switzerland. How does a business paper differ in Eastern Europe and Asia? What makes a fashion magazine viable, if global labels like Gucci and Prada are not readily available in Romania, Slovakia, China or Vietnam? I kept a diary and shot hundreds of (tourist) pictures”</i></p> <p><i>(</i>Excerpts from the original gallery press release of 2000.)</p> <p>Michael Ringier, a well-known art-collector, commissioned the annual report. Artistic “freedom” was constantly negotiated. There is a definite line between the desired expression of an individual artist and the representation of a corporation. What a person, representing a corporation, is allowed to express, is still very different from a private opinion. The works in this show were conceived parallel to this commission The most private opinions of my research are presented in this body of work.</p> <p>From a distance of 23 years and many major global changes, it is compelling to look back at these works, which give voice to a wide range of global citizens. The mood and outlook in the late fall of 1999 towards the new millennium, with all the hopes and fears, becomes evident in the combination of text and images.</p> <p>Download press-release <a href="https://www.gfilomenasoares.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GFS-Christian-Philipp-Muller-Set2023-ENG.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.</p>