Open the door and step into the world of artist Alex Müller. At first glance, everything seems familiar: a free-standing bathtub, a jacket hanging on the wall. But Müller’s everyday objects are anything but ordinary. You wouldn’t want to lie in her bathtub — it’s covered in pale green peas. You couldn’t eat with the 354 spoons, forks and knives because they are wrapped in paper and pinned to the wall like a tally sheet, as if counting down the days of a year. In her first institutional, solo exhibition in Berlin, Müller brings together works spanning nearly twenty years. With Alexandraplatz, she not only reflects on her artistic journey but also on her life. Her works take her biography as a starting point but extend beyond the personal. The cutlery piece, “The First Year 1969”, references the first 354 days of her life. The bathtub symbolizes the bathroom where she sought refuge as a young girl when adults discussed the divided country. Growing up between East and West Germany is also central to her newly created installation, “Von der Hand an die Wand”, which consists of letters Müller’s family wrote between 1961 and 1971 to her father, who had escaped to the West. Through these works, Müller masterfully blends fiction and reality, the personal and the historical. In doing so, she offers an intimate perspective on the world and a universal commentary on Germany’s divided past.
Text: Laura Storfner / Photos: Courtesy the artist & Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Berlin
ZAK – Zentrum für Aktuelle Kunst at Zitadelle Spandau, Am Juliusturm 64, 13599 Berlin–Spandau; map
Alex Müller: Alexandraplatz 01.02.–03.04.2025. Opening: 31.01.2025
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