Marcel Hiller

Reflexionstool Kollektivität / Reflection Tool Collectivity

Marcel Hiller spent his fellowship at Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen conducting an in-depth investigation of the collective method of work adopted by the Magicgruppe Kulturobjekt, which he co-founded. The terms “collectivity” and “institution” were the central focus of his research.

Marcel Hiller writes: “The crew of artists participating in Magicgruppe Kulturobjekt (MGK) varies from project to project; the name refers to a method of work, not to a fixed group of artists. The participating artists assemble in a given situation and, using a visual discourse, describe the material nature and contextual interlocking of the given socio-spatial conditions. The first exhibition by MGK was held in 2010 at the Bonnefantenmuseum in Maastricht. With it came a number of invitations from a wide range of institutions interested in examining the phenomenon of collective work methods and situation-based works through the MGK. At that time, ‘Magicgruppe Kulturobjekt’ was the name given to the situation-specific creative work in that group. The objective was not to form a permanent group of artists but to come together in an exhibition context—according to superordinate interests within a situation—actors who worked with space and material in different ways. MGK became a work concept that renegotiates the practice of perceiving an object in the context of its conditioning. What MGK exhibits, in fact, is no more than stages, phases with changing actors, employing a notion of work that treats the staging site as flexible material, renegotiating it visually and making it gel through very specific additions.”

In the summer semester of 2013, Marcel Hiller introduced the focus of his work and working methods within the context of the seminar “Follow Your Interests”—Order of Culture and (New) Media, held at the Institute for Languages and Literatures, Department of Comparative Literature, University of Innsbruck. The seminar was led by Martin Fritz.