JAN
ZÖller

Jan Zöller born in Haslach im Kinzigtal, (DE), 1992.  Lives and works in Karlsruhe, (DE)

The works of Jan Zöller are full of references to the failure of modernist utopia, the German postwar modernity, and ultimately the collapse of turbo-capitalism. In his videos, actions, and paintings, or even with the formation of imaginary bands, Jan Zöller evokes the idea of an almost Masonic brotherhood, where work, art, and ritual are one, in which constructions and architectures, songs are also a kind of thought building, in which ideas, friendship, utopias manifest themselves. The fountains that repeatedly appear in his paintings, for example, embodied all sorts of (quite broken and interrupted) circuits, of money, creative energy, communication, and relationships. Zöller’s work speaks of the surrogate character of the established art world, which cannot satisfy actual needs for community and creativity, and in doing so tries to find more authentic, spiritual forms of art production.
As the anarchistic birds in his art are occupying fountains, bathrooms, and saunas to co-opt them as a new place for their community, in a similar way Zöller uses the broken system of the art world in his paintings to recreate the foundation for a new utopia.