Christian Falsnaes

UHD video, 00:10:41 min
Stage molton on wood frame, 200×450 cm

What is the relationship between the individual and the group? How is the “I” shaped in the eyes of others, and what projections and constructs are at play?

Christian Falsnaes, renowned for his participatory performances, explores the transformation of the “I” into a “WE”, both using and questioning his identity as an artist, as a man, as white, heterosexual, and as an individual facing a community.

Graphite on paper, 70x50 cm

Rooted in the concept of graffiti as a collective effort, WRITERS UNITED AGAINST THE GREY comprises graphite drawings portraying Berlin graffiti. These drawings capture the accumulation of tags, throw-ups, and pieces by multiple graffiti writers, resulting in intricate large-scale collaborations on various surfaces in urban public space.

GLITCH is a performance in which four people, who have nothing to suggest that they are not regular art fair goers, behave normally until their bodies start to malfunction, to glitch. In the manner of non-playable characters (the extras in video games), these faux art worlders take on absurd guises, highlighting in the process the well-oiled choreography of bodies at an art fair.

GLITCH, 2024 was presented as part of the Art Basel Paris Conversations program curated by Pierre-Alexandre Mateos and Charles Teyssou and produced in collaboration with Le Bicolore, Paris, FR

Performers: Nin Khalifa, Delphine Gaborit, Christian Falsnaes and Alina Alamorean
Casting and styling: Alexia Cayre

COLLABORATION is a workshop that enables an audience, to build an understanding of collaboration, hereby allowing them, under guidance, to develop a performance based on their own desires and ideas.

The workshop Is based on a series of experiments conducted by Falsnaes with his students at the University for Art and Design in Bolzano and was performed for the first time at Andersen's in collaboration with an invited audience. The displayed video serves as reference for future performances, emphasizing the distribution of the performance piece itself, rather than a video work, by allowing different audiences in different contexts to collectively engage in this process and develop and perform pieces related to their own situations.

Produced with support from the Danish Arts Foundation

Glas, children’s clothing, 1125 cm x 450 cm

When entering the central staircase of the new elementary school on Hermine-von-Parish Street in Munich, the gaze is directed towards the skylights of the building through a 13-meter long gradient of red, orange, yellow, violet, green, and blue fields in a flowing movement. What appears from a distance to be a colorful stained glass window reveals itself upon closer inspection as a dynamic collage of children's clothing, pressed between glass panes in various folds, layers, and rotations.

The artwork KÖRPER was created for the construction of the Hermine-von-Parish elementary school in the 21st district of Pasing-Obermenzing, Munich. Christian Falsnaes' proposal was selected in 2019 by the Commission for Art in Architecture and Public Spaces for the Building Department of Munich.

4K Video, 37:53 min.

The film LOOK AT ME documents a series of performances staged by Falsnaes in collaboration with the actress Minni Katina Mertens, in which different groups of people are choreographed in various settings; at an open air festival, a film studio, an art fair and a night club. In LOOK AT ME, the audiences are instructed to twist and turn in specific ways, resulting in a deep exploration of the power relations complicit between the performer, the audience and the camera.

Written and directed by: Christian Falsnaes
In collaboration with: Minni Katina Mertens
Original Music by: Bendik Giske
Assistant Director: Estefanía Landesmann
Editor: Sebastian Krügler
Director of Photography: Harald Mellwig
Second unit Director of Photography: Gustav Stork Jangaard

Destroyed copies of Lucio Fontana, Concetto Spaziale, Attesa (1962), Yves Klein, Monochrom blau ohne Titel (IKB 98) (1957), Imi Knoebel, Hartfaserbild 210 x 160 (1968/2010), Bruce Nauman, Eleven Color Photographs/Self-Portrait as a Fountain (1966), Blinky Palermo, Blaues Dreieck (1969), Reiner Ruthenbeck, Schwarzer Papierhaufen (1970), Franz Erhard Walther, Zwei Keilformen (1994).
4K video, 07:46 min

ICON is a layered work primarily consisting of an exhibition curated by Falsnaes, a subsequent performative act and resulting video. The curated exhibition was inspired by the collection of the Kunstmuseen Krefeld, featuring works by the icons of male-dominated, post-warm modernism, such as Lucio Fontana, Yves Klein, Imi Knoebel, Bruce Nauman, Blinky Palermo, Reiner Ruthenbeck and Franz Erhard Walther. During its opening, Falsnaes instructed those attending to destroy, rearrange and effectively reinvent the displayed works (which were naturally copies of the originals). This radical gesture became the artwork in itself, taking the form of a video piece to be shown in juxtaposition with the destroyed exhibition.

Produced in collaboration with Kunstmuseen Krefeld.

Copper.
200 x 600 x 15 cm.

TOUCH is a wall work consisting of five large copper elements that form the five letters T, O, U, C, and H. The work functions as an imperative that encourages viewers to become involved in a shared artistic process, by inviting them to touch the copper. The fleeting moments of touch ultimately manifest as permanent marks. Whilst most artworks are typically shielded from human interaction, TOUCH is in fact defined by it, as the instinctive responses of by-passers become a true work of collective action.

Visitors, white room, mirror, costumes, sound

The work FORCE is a staging in which visitors are to change into a costume, enter a white room and from then on follow the instructions of a disembodied voice. By putting on the black costume, participants surrender their individuality and become part of a staged sequence of movements; they are transformed into the performers of a complex choreography of which they are the sole audience. This performance was first conceived for an exhibition of the same name at the Kunstmuseen Krefeld (Kaiser Wilhelm Museum), which was also presented in a catalogue published by DISTANZ.

Assistant, white room, white carpet, lighting, mirror, visitor.

SOLO is an installative performance that was conceived especially for the exhibition State of The Arts (2020) at the Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; a presentation which examined the fusion of the visual and performing arts. SOLO, both a practical and conceptual reaction to the distancing and hygiene rules put in place in light of the pandemic, is intended to be performed by a single visitor at a time, enclosed in a white room in front of a large mirror. Alone and clear of any instructions or restrictions, the visitor’s individual reactions and decisions are what constitute the performance. SOLO demonstrates the power that new social conventions possess over altering our intuitive behaviours, not just in interactions with others, but also with our own selves.

3x cut clothes on black wooden frames.
160cm x 120cm each.

Each piece in the series Portraits is representative of one of the main actors which comes into play within the art fair context; the artist, the gallerist and the collector. Under Falsnaes’ instruction, the visitors of 2017’s Vienna Contemporary Art Fair were to gradually destroy the clothing of these three actors present, to then attach the fragments of textile to a foundational wooden frame, in what would result in three abstracted portraits of the artist, the gallerist and the collector respectively. Portraits turns visitors into active agents of the piece, ultimately tearing down any barriers which exist between an artwork and its viewer

Performance with six dancers and audience.

FALL is a performance directed by Falsnaes in collaboration with Martin Forsberg, conceived to be performed by an audience together with the experimental dance company Corpus in the context of a collaboration between The Royal Danish Theater and Chart Art Fair, Copenhagen.

The performance maintains in its structure the collaborative nature of the commission by making an ordinary audience join forces with a group of six professional dancers in order to create an artwork. In FALL the involvement of the audience collides with a certain awakening of the dance company, all within an open framework whereby unexpected physical and psychological reactions of the audience define the image and character of the piece.

Falsnaes leads the audience through a choreography developed in collaboration with Forsberg, centered around the act of falling as an effective dramatic resource that enables an awareness of the weight and structure of the self, both as singular cells and as part of a collective.

2-channel video installation

SELF is a two-channel video piece related to a series of works in which Falsnaes critically examines his own practice. Whilst the artist’s works are typically based on unscripted reactions of unsuspecting audiences, SELF is staged and filmed with performers hired specifically for its purpose.

The video work follows in each channel respectively a single person and a group of people advancing through the streets of Berlin. As the single person moves forward, it remains unclear what brought them there, what purpose they are pursuing, where they have come from, let alone where they are going. The camera follows the person as they carry out different actions, alter their body language and express themselves in mere reactions to their own body.

The camera follows the group of people in the second channel in a similar fashion. Whilst equally many unknowns remain as to their path and purpose, each of their bodies is attuned to one another, as their movements, body language, and expressions are synchronized. Together, the group emerges as a swarm, something of a decentred collective body that neither seems to go anywhere nor to achieve anything.

The elements of persuasion and uncertainty which arise when working with spontaneous exhibition visitors are replaced in SELF with a seemingly effortless execution, as the protagonists fully submit to the terms of the film’s direction, and thus to a certain hierarchy probed by the artist in this given framework.

2-channel video installation, one hired instructor, visitors.

As visitors enter the installative work, Moving Images, they are faced with two video projections opposite one another, each showing a mix of pre-recorded performances, clips of people’s faces fighting for attention, miscellaneous images downloaded from the internet and panels of plain colour. A voiceover then instructs the visitors to take a position in relation to the projections; they are to contemplate and reflect on the projected images and how they are reacting to them, or are instructed to carry out different actions, from dancing, to kneeling, to walking around.
The piece requires an instructor whose role is to ensure all visitors follow the instructions of the voiceover. Throughout the performance, the instructor is to pause the installation and engage the visitors in a group discussion about their experience of the work; How does watching a performance in real life relate to watching one on a screen? How does the viewing then influence the experience?

Camera with headlight, live-feed projection, camera operator, instructor, visitors.

FEED is a real-time video installation and immersive performance. The piece requires an instructor and camera person who are to guide visitors to perform in front of the camera. Whatever the visitor does is simultaneously shown in real-time on a screen in the room. In FEED, the material filmed is never actually recorded, and is never intended to be shown elsewhere, consequently encouraging presence in the production process.
In FEED, a sort of laboratory is created, in which one submits to a hierarchy in order to experience certain power structures and social dynamics. Participants are given a space to both feel this submission, and watch themselves go through it via the real-time footage; their awareness of their individual choices and responsibility are heightened, and as a result the piece becomes a space for self-reflection.

Stage, stage light, audio on headphones, visitors.

Eponymously, this performative work invites visitors onto a stage where they are to put on a set of headphones through which they will be instructed on a choreography to carry out. This act transforms the stage into a pedestal as the visitors become a sort of sculpture; one which continually takes on new forms as the choreography is interpreted differently by each person coming onto the stage. In STAGE, it is the viewers—their bodies and their identities—which become the main material and subject matter of the work.

Paint on canvas and on different surfaces in public space
Photo   

Surface Memory is an ongoing body of work involving painting, photography and public space. The idea is that a white canvas is prepared with several layers and colours of paint, and is then used as a tool to paint on surfaces in public space; be it a bus shelter, a concrete wall or side of a train. The respective canvas is then displayed next to a photo of the painted surface in public space.

Performance
Marker on paper
Photo

Time/Line/Movement is an ongoing series of drawings which removes any barriers between the artist and the collector. When one of these drawings finds a new home, the new owner is to make a hand drawn copy of the original work before proceeding to burning it. Ultimately, the interpretation of the original is what becomes the artwork; one that probes a collective action between two pillars of the art world.

Film studio, video display, instructor, visitors.

This piece involves filming the first visitor of the exhibition each day as they react to a series of commands from an instructor. The film which is produced then and there is to become the exhibition material until closure each day, at which point the footage gets deleted for the process to be repeated the next day. Should the first visitor of the day deny being filmed, no video will be shown that day. In this respect, the artwork obliges the visitor to submit to its terms; the choice of how to submit remains in the power of the visitor, and this choice forms a codified response which directly becomes the work.

5-channel audio on wireless headphones, two people hired to follow instructions, visitors.

This work first debuted at Art Basel Statements in 2014 and has since been widely shown. It involves an experimental performance piece in which audience members are required to put on one pair of five sets of wireless headphones. Through the headphones, the participant receives a set of instructions delivered by an unfamiliar voice. Although the instructions are unique to each set of headphones, they are synchronized such that the actions and behaviours subsequently taken on by the participants become an intricately choreographed display. As a result, the participants relate to themselves, to each other and to their surroundings through a continual flow of new commands.

Two of the five headphone sets in this piece are to be worn by people hired to partake, and the remaining three are for random visitors.

Performance
Spray painted OSB-plates on wood structure, ca. 300 x 1500 cm
Video

FRONT is a participatory performance in which a large-scale wooden structure is spray-painted, torn down, paraded around, and subsequently rebuilt into new forms, all under the constant instruction and incitement of the artist. The resulting sculpture functions as a documentation of a collective process, throughout which the audience is instructed to cheer and display euphoric behaviour.

Single-channel audio on speakers, one hired instructor, visitors.   

This piece is a collective performance in which, through a set of loudspeakers, a voice gives out instructions which revolve around social and physical interactions; from singing to dancing, to kissing and more. Wherever this performance is staged, the artist invites visitors or anyone passing by to pause their errands, release all their inhibitions and engage with the instructions–some of which are as simple as they are absurd, for the plain reason indicated by the title that A Good Reason Is One That Looks Like One. This piece makes use of a hired instructor whose task is to make sure that the described scenarios are being carried out by everyone moving through the space in which the work is shown

App for android tablet, YouTube channel, visitors.   
 
The Title Is Your Name refers to the given titles of the videos that are created whenever someone performs this work, i.e.–the names of the exhibition visitors. Participants in this work are to enter alone into a room lit by spotlights, to find in the middle a table and a tablet. They are to interact with the app on the tablet, and in doing so, to carry out a private performance. The app records the performance through the tablet’s webcam, and if the visitor wants to see the recorded video, it gets uploaded to the YouTube channel, The Title is Your Name. If a visitor chooses not to see the video, the footage gets deleted immediately. The result is a channel of many private performances carried out by visitors of the respective exhibitions of the work.

Oil on canvas   

ONE is an ongoing series of paintings which are produced by exhibition visitors under the artist’s detailed guidance. By rigorously commandeering visitors’ brushstrokes on the canvas, their respective comfort zones are challenged and a situation is created whereby what is painted becomes by default an expression of something fundamentally human, as opposed to merely an offhand drawing. Each canvas is treated by more than just one visitor, so as for the paintings to result in a collective form of abstract expressionism, and to further explore the artist’s interest in gesture and human expression.

Mobile phone, visitors.

For this piece, Falsnaes places a telephone with a direct line to him in an exhibition space, and makes himself available throughout the duration of the show to give the instructions for actions to be performed within the exhibition. Each caller receives a different set of instructions, and from the moment the call is made, becomes directly involved in the production of something which can only take shape as a result of the diverse possibilities of such a participative situation.

Performance
Video   

Rise is a performance of ultimate collective action which was first realized in the auditorium of the Akademie der Künste Berlin in 2014. This work questions the relationship between the audience and the artist, as Falsnaes orders his audience what to do, and what to refrain from doing with ever-increasing dominance. Ranging from sitting to standing, from remaining silent to chanting loudly, from dancing slowly to then storming the stage, the endless stream of instructions which form the work Rise at once deconstructs the artist’s power and discloses the audience’s manipulability. This work equally challenges the theatre setting in which it initially occurred, as the artist takes place on a stage, but instead of performing for the visitors only gives instructions as to how they must behave.

3-channel video installation

Syntax Error consists of a three-channel video installation surrounding a series of three performances which were filmed at the openings of the group exhibitions Enten/Eller at the Nikolaj Contemporary Art Centre, Copenhagen, DK; Entweder/oder at the Haus am Waldsee, Berlin, DE; and lastly Grundfrage (Question Fondamentale) at Crac Alsace, Altkirch, FR. Each performance consisted of a group of men interrupting the opening speeches of the respective exhibitions by attacking the visitors and causing general chaos. Under Falsnaes’ direction, the men then proceeded to dance among the visitor crowds and to eventually leave the site of the performance. The resulting work is the footage of these events.

Performance
Cut clothes on stretcher bars
Video   

Opening is a performance that was presented at the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, involving an unprepared audience agreeing to take part in the music video for “In And Out”, a song written and recorded by Falsnaes. For the first part of the video, the audience was asked to engage in a simple choreography and as the music progresses, the artist leads the group out into the streets. Following this recording, the artist spoke to the audience about the ideas behind this work, as they simultaneously cut off pieces of his clothing to ultimately create a new work.
 

MALE DEMEANOR AS A CONSEQUENCE OF SOCIETAL POWER RELATIONS BETWEEN ARTIST AND AUDIENCE 

4-channel video installation   

This piece is a four-channel video installation, which follows four different performances. In each performance, the artist leads a group of ten men and ten women through different scenarios in which he takes on a different position of authority; a teacher, a commander, a star, and an aggressor. These different scenarios incite different types of behaviours and reactions from the audience. Almost subconsciously, but in an equally playful manner, the visitors become involved in situations which deal with authority, group dynamics, social rituals, enthusiasm, and submission, and become the key actors of a performative process of power play.

HD 1080p Video
Duration: 12'25''  

Influence is a performance in which an unprepared audience–initially at the opening of the “Regionale” art festival in St. Lambrecht–is led from a certain reservation to partake in Falsnaes’ music video through to a state of euphoria and celebration revolving around the artist as the center of attention. As the music video is shot, Falsnaes controls the audience’s actions, eventually leading them outside of the building in the hope that everyone would wander off and the performance would end. Though this first part of the video takes place within the safety of an art context, the second part is recorded at a local celebration in Bavaria, as an uninvited intervention on Falsnaes’ behalf, in which no one knows of its artistic intent. As everything unfolds, it becomes evident that both the first and second audiences remain in total anticipation of what is next, leading the artist to take further action in what is essentially an exploration of the hierarchal structure inherent in performance.

Performance
Installation
Video   
 

For this performance, visitors are divided into two groups which are to enter either a white cube gallery space or a cinema room in which a live-stream of the white cube space is being shown. The group in the white cube, i.e. the active space, become involved in a series of rituals which leads to the formation of a group called “Elixir”. Under the artist’s direction, the group paints the walls of the space, performs a choreography, and ultimately saws holes in the wall in order to crawl through into the cinema–which has been comparatively considered as the passive space. Once the two crowds are united in the cinema space, the passive audience join themselves to “Elixir” and all are brought out to the street to illegally spray paint a large wall. When they are brought back to the gallery, Falsnaes leads “Elixir” through a calming group meditation in which people are invited to self-reflect all whilst contemplating the group dynamic they have just been implicated in.

Music video by Amos Angeles, Søren Berner and Christian Falsnaes

The subway is a powerful symbol. In graffiti culture, the subway has a mythological status as a hard to reach target, and as a reminder of graffiti’s origins on the New York public transit lines. For every one else, the subway is something that belongs to the city’s inhabitants, something that we see and touch every day as we take the train. Still, the subway is out of reach. It is hidden away in tunnels under the city and protected by security, cameras and police. All contact with the subway follows an exact and constructed pattern and any movement out of that pattern is prohibited. As a media for painting, the subway is taboo. In Love and Security, the protagonists are present as naked humans, vulnerable and exposed, among giant steel cars, surveillance systems and electric tracks, equipped with nothing but paint.

Performance
Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 280 cm
Video   

Existing Things is a performance and video curated by Spike Art Quarterly for Vienna Art Week 2010, which begins as Falsnaes performs in front of video projections of earlier works as the audience passively watches. The artist then throws himself into the crowd, ordering people to use him as a paintbrush in the creation of a large painting. The crowd proceeds to leave the gallery for the streets, where a spontaneous rave is initiated and the audience is captured singing and dancing to Eminem’s “Lose Yourself”.

Performance
Installation
Video   
 

In There and Back, Falsnaes explores how the myth of the hero influences our interpretation of stories, masculine identity and history, loosely basing himself on Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero’s Journey”. In his performance, with references to both computer games and Greek mythology, Falsnaes and the audience come together to carry out a series of self-imposed challenges. As the exhibition space is turned into a film set, the audience is led by the hero (Falsnaes) on a journey through increasingly far-fetched scenes where they are assigned different tasks in front of the camera. The final recording is then shown in the exhibition with the leftover sets.