Geert Mul

Geert Mul (Rotterdam,1965) studied at the Arnhem Academy of Arts from 1985 to 1990, majoring in computer animation. Afterwards he travelled to several countries around the world, including Japan. The audio and video recordings he made during these trips were later used for pieces exhibited in art galleries in the Netherlands. His work primarily consists of videos, installations, performances and concerts and is to be seen in a variety of venues and locations, ranging from museums to music festivals, public squares and concert halls. Mul addresses the function of the space where his installations are placed. They are usually conceived expressly for their place of exhibition, taking into consideration the specific features of the venue, including the architecture and the audience’s behaviour. The relationship between structure and meaning is a central concern in Mul’s work. In conceiving individual works he uses software he designs himself to store and recover visual data and to generate the underlying structures in the expression and meaning of his artistic practice. That said, in other works he dispenses entirely with technology to search for the syntax of pure visual and emotional expression. In the interactive installation he has created for Gallery 4 at the IVAM, Geert Mul analyses elements reflecting the local culture of a city, or indeed a country, and its various manifestations through sporting or cultural phenomena. The audience can take part either as passive spectators or they can actively intervene in the projection by modifying the images that are grouped into categories (symbols, architecture, supporters, autochthonous elements, etc.). In this work, the artist puts forward his own reading of Valencia Football Club, its world and environment, providing a spectacular insight into the surrounding social phenomenon. This installation is a product of the collaboration between the IVAM and Fundación Valencia Club de Fútbol with the goal of bringing the world of sports and its social spectrum closer to the domain of art.