“Dödskult boende i Gbg söktes” is an immersive experience that represents a home of a fictitious, deceased and forgotten person from Gothenburg, with an abundance of remains that are mostly irrelevant details for the ones who where not in a close relation. One encounters larger collections of all sorts of objects such as souvenirs from travels, menus, exotic cigarette packages or sheer rubbish that suggest an eventful and easygoing life in completely different times that where full of laughter, struggle, socializing and unhealthy habits. The visitor can either take on the role of a detective to understand the personal value of all these items and put them in different contexts or let the memories go up in smoke.
The exhibition sheds light on the big question of how relatives should decide what should be kept and what should be deleted after a death has occurred. After the shock and grief that follows an unexpected death, being responsible for managing a legacy in the form of both collections of all kinds of objects and huge amounts of digital data is not a simple task. Being rational in such a situation is certainly not an easy decision for a grieving person who has to act quickly, and it doesn’t help that these decisions are often regretted after a longer period of time has passed.
About the artists
Sebastian Mügge (b. 1981) and Christoph Mügge (b. 1983) were both born in Germany and live in Sweden. Sebastian got his MFA degree from Umeå Academy of Fine Arts in 2011 and Christoph studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he received his diploma in 2013. Both artists mainly work with interdisciplinary and site-specific projects on a large scale. They have a strong personal artistic language that builds on repetitions of a diversity of materials in many techniques. Their formations often interweave historical events with the contemporary where questions regarding identity, power structures and how various conflicts influence our daily life are examined in a playful and humorous manner.
Together they have exhibited at Galerie Fontana (Amsterdam, NL), Museum Villa Rot (DE), Plateforme (Paris, FR), DG Kunstraum (Munich, DE), The Koppel Project (London, UK), Ostrale Biennale ( Dresden, DE), Sinne (Helsinki, FI), PARTcours Biennial (Brussels, BE), Æther (Sofia, BG), Kunstverein Baden (Baden, AT), Kristianstads Konsthall, Vestfold Kunstsenter (Tønsberg, NO), Södertälje Konsthall, OK Corral (Copenhagen, DK), DAS ESSZIMMER – space for art+ (Bonn, DE), Meno Parkas Galerija (Kaunas, LT), Periscope (Salzburg, AT) and P8 Gallery (Tel Aviv, IL).
Hendrik Zeitler