A Red Show In A, 2016
WhiteBox Gallery, NYC
Curated by Juan Puntes and Lara Pan
As part of Armory Arts Week
Jean Pierre Müller, together with Robert Wyatt, one of music’s greatest shamans, has expanded and deepened the rich material used for their 7x7-Red-A sound altarpiece.
A Red Show in A and its recreation of the Alhambra for modern times carry’s a deep reflection that resonates particularly in these times of confrontation.
This total artwork was conceived and created in the artist’s studio in Molenbeek, that part of Brussels which has risen to sudden fame as a so-called world-basis for Islamist terrorists. Passing through seven gates amongst which a Gate of the Crusaders, a Gate of Jihad, a Gate of Zion and a Gate of Harmony, hearing sounds, seeing lights and listening to Robert Wyatt’s talking of the immense heritage of the Alhambra and Al-Andalus, the visitor is invited to reflect on notions like expulsion, coexistence, religion and beauty. He can also listen to a splendid composition in A, Robert Wyatt last-ever composition, his ultimate legacy.
It is a nostalgic salute to Al-Andalus, when Spain was under Moorish rule and religions coexisted peacefully (at least, this is the way one can dream of it today, when everything concurs to convince us we’re at war with the others). The most powerful symbol of this period is the Alhambra palace in Granada. This golden age ended in 1492 with the Alhambra Decree and the expulsion of all the Jews from Spain. Al-Hamra means the Red one, in Arabic...
Three symbols become one
Müller has adapted Malevich’s emblematic paintings of the Black Square,
the Black Circle and the Black Cross
into a Red Star of David, a Red Crescent and a Red Cross.
A fourth symbol image mixes the cross, the star of David and the crescent into a powerful syncretic symbol.
into a Red Star of David, a Red Crescent and a Red Cross.
