Reinhard Mucha’s exhibition Kasse beim Fahrer with his eponymous, spacious installation Kasse beim Fahrer 0.2, [2022] 1987 (Buy Ticket from Driver 0.2) not only transforms the Berlin gallery space into a fairground, but also addresses the core topic of exhibiting and displaying in a special way.
The carousel-like main attraction rises in the center of the gallery space: The lights are on, the ride starts, and the carousel turns—or so it seems due to the circular and dynamically staggered arrangement of chairs. The freestanding installation appears as a unit rotating by itself—yet always firmly anchored to the wall by its own reflection in the accompanying wall piece: a felt-covered cube with a glass pane in front.
The counterpart to this “wall anchor” (Mucha) is the two-part work ensemble on the opposite wall—Die Deutsche Frage / Dornap, Für Philip Nelson (The German Question / Dornap, For Philip Nelson) from 2007—consisting of a wall-mounted and freestanding display case in which not only the visitors themselves but also the carousel are reflected, thus making viewers and the space an elemental part of the work. Also on a formal-aesthetic level, both—the carousel and the work ensemble—form a strong connection. The dark red of the tabletops is echoed in the reverse glass painting and the Balatum flooring of the wall-mounted display case, while the locks of the suitcases in the freestanding display case serve as the formal counterpart to the drawer keys of the carousel.
Reinhard Mucha draws from life. His raw materials are everyday utilitarian objects—ladders, tables, chairs, fluorescent lamps, barrier cords, or adhesive tape—which, assembled with great precision, turn into something new without denying the origins and original pragmatism of the various objects. The focus here is on the concrete, sensually tangible things of everyday life—unambiguously recognizable for what they are—as a clear contrast to Joseph Beuys’s mythologically charged cosmos of materials.
