Leonhard Müllner | Artists in Residence | Kamov Residency

Photo: Anna_Šolcová

• Biography
• The Project
• Organized by

• Leonhard Müllner

  → https://totalrefusal.com/

  Born in Graz in 1987, Leonhard Müllner currently works as a visual artist and media researcher in Vienna. He studied Experimental Design in Linz, Video and Video Installation in Leipzig, Video Art in Vienna, and completed his PhD 2023 in Game Art/Game Studies, under the guidance of Professor Helmut Lethen. In 2018, he co-founded the pseudomarxist media collective Total Refusal, garnering over 50 awards, including the European Film Award and the Best Short Direction Award at the Locarno Film Festival.

  Total Refusal is a collective of artists, researchers, and filmmakers who upcycle the resources of mainstream video games to create political narratives in the form of videos, interventions, performances, and lectures. Total Refusals’ work has been screened at over 250 film- and art festivals – such as Berlinale, Doc Fortnight at MOMA New York, and the Locarno Film Festival – and has been exhibited at various exhibition spaces like the Architecture Biennial Venice 2021, the HEK Basel and the Ars Electronica Linz.

• 04.-29.02.2024.

  Muellner collaborates both digitally and physically with his colleagues Robin Klengel and Michael Stumpf on their first feature length film, Money is a Form of Speech. It is an in-game lecture-ballet set in Tom Clancy's The Division 2 video game's digital Washington, D.C., plunged into the post-apocalypse by a pandemic, and it explores the complex interplay of capitalism and democracy. Instead of engaging in the usually combative gameplay of multiplayer shooters, the digital performers embark on a tour along the gridlocked Pennsylvania Avenue, from the White House to the Capitol, tracing the thread of an audiovisual pamphlet. The mechanics of the game are misappropriated, the avatars become performers and the setting becomes a stage for a critical analysis of the most powerful liberal democracy of the 20th and 21st centuries. The post-apocalyptic atmosphere of the game is perfectly juxtaposed with dance and song elements. Referring to the term “machinima”, which summarizes the genre of films realized in video games, we could also speak of a “machinifesto”.

  Beside working on Money is a Form of Speech, Muellner is also creating a video that delves into the recent surge of Viking fascination in pop culture, while also examining the concepts of history and masculinity in video games. 

  His plan is to play the city builder video game “Workers and Resources” with a former Yugoslavian architect, if he finds one.

  Leonhard will be continuing his residency in Rijeka throughout July 2024.

  The residency is supported by the Cultural Department of the Styrian Regional Government.

• Museum of modern and contemporary art

  → www.mmsu.hr

  Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art, Rijeka (HR) - MMSU

   

  MMSU in Rijeka founded in 1948, in its long tradition offers a committed support to innovative ways of approaching, producing and presenting art. From its very beginning the Museum has been building reputation of one of the most prominent visual art institutions in Croatia, entrusted with presentation of Croatian artists at prestigious international art events such as: Venice Biennial 1962, 1997, 2007, 2010, Sao Paolo Biennial 1967, 2004 etc. 

  The Museum rounds its programming around visual art education, parallel to different modes of exhibition concepts that address new discursive possibilities and transform it into a place of inspiration, idea exchange and active participation. Under the motto openness, creativity & engagement, together with artistic, cultural and community organizations, Museum furthers visual arts research, collaboration and exchange within the region and internationally, while aspiring to reach increasingly diverse audiences and to work in a close relationship with the community.

  Museum’s collection offers a diverse range of artistic visions with over 8,000 artworks dated from the end of the 19^th century to the present day. From 2017 Museum is located at new address, Krešimirova 26c, in ex-industrial complex Rikard Benčić. Since then, some important exhibitions were organized at MMSU in the framework of the pre-program and program of Rijeka 2020 - European Capital of Culture, i.e. Tomislav Gotovac: Crisis Anticipator - Don't Ask Where We're Going (2017), Vlado Martek: Exhibition with Many Titles and Goran Petercol: Don't Worry About Poetics, They Will Arrive on Their Own in 2019 and David Maljković: With the Collection in 2020..