Julian Irlinger
Frieze London
Julian Irlinger engages with the writing of history as it relates to images and artistic production. His practice addresses the formation of a national and cultural identity and combines research with the presentation of materials that have a politically illuminating value, while delving more profoundly into what is commonly repressed.
Readymade toy houses are placed on the floor and pigment prints hang in a grid, accompanied by a text of Nora M. Alter. The presentation focuses on productions embodying political and economical crises. The prints show details from German emergency currency, "Notgeld", issued in the 1920s. These currency notes were designed by artists and incarnate artistic work during Germany’s biggest economical crisis. This grouping seeks to channel the political unconscious. The houses were produced by Playmobil after WWII, resembling the German “Fachwerkhaus”, introducing a German nationalist symbol in children's rooms. The presentation illustrates the perpetuation of conservative sentiment in daily life since the early cold war period.
Working with historical and present-day readymades, Julian Irlinger investigates the connection of aesthetics and ideology. This presentation looks into the manifestation of such dynamics within daily life experience as a force behind the reproduction of cultural and national identity.