What is typical for the studio of a video artist? Is his workplace identical with a film set and what particular production conditions prevail there? Bjørn Melhus is the fifth artist in the Stiftung Brandenburger Tor’s exhibition series "im Atelier Liebermann".

The title of the exhibition, HOT SET, makes reference to a term used in the film industry that denotes an active film set on which nothing may be changed anymore. Bjørn Melhus uses this term so as to put the focus of the exhibition on the relationship between the terms “set” and “studio” and to address his studio practice in connection with the moving image. For him, the film shoot situation is central to his work. The film set, wherever it may be located, becomes his mobile studio.

On this occasion, Bjørn Melhus provides insights into his creative process as an artist for the first time. The exhibition presents previously unshown material, photos, drawings, outtakes, and costumes from nearly three decades as well as artifacts from his studio and models from his exhibition projects. The exhibition also includes his so-called "Headshots": in the past twenty-five years, Melhus has slipped into nearly one hundred different roles, which have been documented in photos and can be seen in their entirety here.

In his videos and installations, Bjørn Melhus is always his own protagonist—gender-spanning, a human being one time, another time an animal. What seems comical and absurd at first glance is multilayered and extremely serious. With his exaggerated way of processing found footage material, found sound material from film, television, and online channels, he analyzes and comments on the interrelationships between mass media and society.

About "im Atelier Liebermann"

In remembrance of the rooftop studio of Max Liebermann, the Stiftung Brandenburger Tor presents contemporary artists each year in the series "im Atelier Liebermann". Central to the exhibitions is hence the artistic process of creation and therefore questions such as: What inspires artistic creation? How does work in a studio look like? What does a studio signify today?