Deep Sea Dweller

PIK Cologne
2018

as part of
Field of Codes
invited by Markus Saile



Marcel Hiller fills the exhibition space with steel units. These can be understood as counterpoints to the neutrality of an exhibition space, whose pseudo-functionality points to something unknown in representation’s space of consensus. Where his earlier objects were often unprocessed, his new works merely have the appearance of found objects or waste products. These precisely crafted objects negotiate the concept of the sculpture every time anew. Hiller understands his objects as “nervous archives of structural protocols.” The focus is not directed at them but rather at what surrounds them. This includes spatial, architectural surroundings as much as a semantic space of codes and linguistic and pictorial signifiers. Grouped with readymades, the objects become improvising actors that map onto existing structures and speak to the fragility of institutional processes. 

The publication "Field of Codes" is published to accompany the exhibition.
Edited by Ilka Becker, Marcel Hiller, Katrin Mayer and Markus Saile