At this year’s general meeting of the Galerieverein, a vote was taken on the purchase of works by Tony Oursler. To the great delight of all involved, three works from the current exhibition Hoisted from the Pit were acquired: Nephilim and the two works DMEz*l and che^^trails, which together form an immersive room installation.

Oursler is a pioneer of video art and has been developing experimental video installations since the 1970s. Nephilim (a replica of the Cardiff Giant) and the room installation BLUE mark new directions in his work. Unlike his earlier works, in which video projections usually hit object surfaces, the translucent figure of the Cardiff Giant is illuminated from within – a deliberate reversal of his usual technique. The sculpture thus becomes a three-dimensional projection surface itself. In the installation BLUE, several video projections overlap on different levels in the room. Oursler transforms the space into a walk-in kaleidoscope in which the audience can move freely and yet always feel at the centre of the action.

‘The members of the Galerieverein are once again demonstrating their interest in innovative art on contemporary themes. At the same time, they are making it possible to follow an important development in the artist’s work,’ says curator Lynn Kost. He is referring to the artist’s changing working methods, from his early single-channel videos, all of which are represented in the museum’s collection, to his video installations, in which he projected onto objects.

The exhibition Hoisted from the Pit deals with fake news, artificial intelligence (AI), conspiracy theories and media manipulation – based on the Cardiff Giant, which was celebrated as an archaeological sensation in Cardiff, New York, in 1869 and was later exposed as a hoax.