Antoni Muntadas

"Private and public protocols control organise and define society and our lives. They generate a set of regulations that exercise a sustained influence over our private as well as over our public behaviour.
Rituals, conventions, rules...protocols cover a variety of procedures and, in one way or another, they
attempt to use, define, control or exercise power. Two architectonic environments around which protocols are established and which especially pertain to our leisure time are the stadium and the museum. "Protokolle" examines these structures with respect to their forms of mediation and organisation."
-Muntadas

Muntadas has entitled his exhibition Protokolle (protocols). The concept "protocol" marks the prelude to a new series of projects through which the artist seeks to examine the meanings, mechanisms and effects of protocols in terms of cultural regulations, which intervene in both public and private lives: from written records based on a specific formula and rules determining social conduct, through to diplomatic, military and religious behavioural codices or digital network protocols.

The exhibition's point of departure comprises two works: A Recontextualized version of Muntadas' multimedia installation Stadium: Homage to the Audience (1989 - 2006) and the project On Translation: Die Sammlung (2006), which presents various works by artists such as John Cage, Dieter Roth or Francisco de Goya from quite a unique perspective.

In both works Muntadas examines the conditions that regulate our perception of and our attitudes towards culture: on the one hand, popular culture (the stadium) while, on the other, high-culture (the museum). Thus, the stadium and the museum are considered equally from the vantage points of the "protocols" each produce.

As a spatial as well as a contextual link between "On Translation: Die Sammlung" and "Stadium", Muntadas has developed a third space, which is dedicated to the farreaching appearances and impact of protocols. The documentary material presented here tracks both linguistic definitions as well as pictorial representations of protocols at various times and in various places. Furthermore, Muntadas shows a series of recent works, here read from the point of view of the protocol.

A brochure on his exhibition at the Württembergischer Kunstverein is due to be published in June, 2006 as well as a substantial publication, to be issued in August/September, 2006.