Stephan Dillemuth sees art and its distinct qualities as a tool for research and critical reflection of the circumstances of contemporary life. With its inherent methods of reflection, analysis, and experimentation, art, he believes, creates beauty, but it also has the potential to change society. His inquiry into recent changes in the idea of the public sphere takes place against the backdrop of our globalised, localised and fragmented publics. Here we can see historical trajectories of liberation, e.g. those of bohemia, lebensreform and self-expression intersecting with new technologies of surveillance and control in order to establish a new ideology of ‘freedom’ as a totalitarian rule. What are the conflicts at hand?
Stephan Dillemuth teaches at Munich’s Academy of Fine Arts and he has shown all over the world including Bergen Assembly (Bergen, 2013), Secession (Vienna, 2012), Manifesta 8 (Murcia, 2010), Transmission Gallery (Glasgow, 2010), Galerie für Landschaftskunst (Hamburg, 2009), Reena Spaulings Fine Art (2008), Galerie Christian Nagel (Köln, 2007), American Fine Arts, Co., (New York, 2000), Friesenwall 120 (1990-1994), Sommerakademie Kunstverein München (Munich, 1990) and UTV (1995-1997).