In his installations frequently resembling experimental configurations, German artist
Christoph Keller uses the discursive possibilities of art to investigate the themes of
science and its utopias. The Cloudbuster-Projects (since 2003) involve reenactments
of Wilhelm Reich’s experiments for influencing the atmosphere with orgon energy. In
Encyclopaedia Cinematographica (2001) and Archives as Objects as Monuments
(2000), Keller focuses upon the archeology of scientific film, the impossibility of
objective documentation, and the problem of the archival urge to bring order to
comprehensive knowledge. In spite of all methodological objectivity, a selective and
deliberate design is always at work here. In Expedition-Bus and Shaman-Travel
(2002), a mirrored camping bus for research trips, the ethnographic viewpoint of
science is exposed as a projection of its own culture. The viewer is drawn into the
installation and becomes a field investigator, for Keller is ultimately concerned with
linking the methods and procedures of scientific work with a spatial but also
psychological-physical experiencing of art.
Keller is often working on themes at the frontiers of science, such as the connection
between hypnosis and cinematography in Hypnosis-Film-Project (2007) or Visiting a
Contemporary Art Museum under Hypnosis (2006) for which he studied and
experimentally applied hypnotic methods: The Mesmer Room (2006). In The
Chemtrails Phenomenon (2006) and The Whole Earth (2007), the theme is conspiracy
theories in the Internet, which as “scientific constructs” are likewise expressions of a
certain state of consciousness in society. In his work-cycle on Inverse Observatories
(since 2007) Keller reverses the view: It is not the universe that is observed, but rather
the observation itself. In 2008 he also founded an interdisciplinary research group for
the representation of altered states in the arts at the Art-University of Bern. Leading to
the very boundaries of language is the video-installation Interpreters (2008) in which
simultaneous translators translate in two directions while reflecting on their work. The
video Verbal/ Nonverbal (2010) shows a number of test subjects in front of a neutral
white background inhaling a hallucinogenic gas and hence speaking about their
experiences.
Christoph Keller first studied mathematics, physics and hydrology, before continuing
his studies at the art academy in Berlin and in Cologne. His works are present in many
international exhibitions like the Lyon Biennial (2011), Klimakapseln, Museum für
Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (2010), the Bienal del Fin del Mundo, Argentina
(2009), Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2009), Dreamtime, Musé des
Abattoirs in Toulouse (2009), Artfocus Jerusalem (2008), Made in Germany in
Hannover (2007) or the solo-exhibition Observatorium in the Kunstverein
Braunschweig (2008) or LIAF Lofoten (2011).
Æther – between cosmology and consciousness (2011) at Centre Georges Pompidou
in Paris was his first artistic and curatorial-project in an institutional context.
He received several awards and grants for his work like the Ars Viva-Preis for art and
science, the P.S.1 studio-grant in New York, Residences Internationales aux
Recollets, Paris, BM Suma in Istanbul and Capacete in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Christoph Kelller is based in Berlin. Currently he is teaching as a guest professor at
the visual art department of the Haute école d'art et de design in Geneva. In 2015 he
will be one of the main tutors at the CAPACETE experimental Art school program in
Rio de Janeiro.