Milena Büsch, Auto Freizeit Motor Sport, 2022, Installation view, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna. Photography: kunst-dokumentation.com
Milena Büsch
Auto Freizeit Motor Sport
4. 11. 2022 – 7. 1. 2023
FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna
Körperliche Selbstverletzung hat unterschiedliche Ursprünge und Ansätze: Ritual, Wahn, Autoaggressionen, etc. Die Psychologie sieht in wiederkehrenden selbstverletzenden Verhaltensweisen weniger, wie oft angenommen, einen Hilferuf nach außen als die Möglichkeit einer Entlastung, Befreiung des zur Person gehörenden Kopfes, der z.B. unter ständiger Anspannung steht, in dem Ruhe nie einkehrt. Über den körperlich zugeführten Schmerz, der für den Bruchteil einer Sekunde eine Pause von sich selbst ermöglicht, ablenkt, den Kopf, das Gehirn austrickst - Entspannung -
Therapieansätze sind vielfältig. Eine mögliche Methode sind Gummibänder am Handgelenk, die beim Schnipsen diese kurze Pause im Kopf ermöglichen sollen, ohne bleibende Schäden nach sich zu ziehen.
Eine ähnliche Erfahrung hatte ich kürzlich mit Baywatch.
Ich war in einer Phase, in der Schlaf nicht funktionierte und zur Ruhe zu kommen keine Option war. Baywatch, besser Shauni (Erika Eleniak), wurde für die nächsten Wochen meine Lösung. Etwas an ihr und ihrem roten Badeanzug war so ausgeglichen, symmetrisch und entspannend. Zur zweiten Staffel kam Shauni mit Silikon, wie es bei Baywatch Anfang der 90er in Mode kam. Nichts war ausgewogen und beruhigend anymore! Meine Schlaflosigkeit fing wieder an. Dabei habe ich nichts gegen Selbstzerstörung, sie muss nur unbedingt gewollt und kein Kunstfehler sein.
Und das Malen? Ist auch eine Art Selbstzerstörung, in jedem Fall eine Verletzung!
Wahrscheinlich wäre ein Leben als Gummiband effizienter gewesen. With real purpose!
Dann wäre ich bestimmt auch nicht Kettenraucherin geworden, sondern hätte nur hin und wieder aus purem Genuss zur Zigarette gegriffen.
Physical self-harm has various origins and intentions: rituals, delusion, autoaggression, etc. Psychology sees in deliberate self-harming behavior less, as often assumed, a call for help to the outside than the possibility of a relief, a liberation of the head belonging to the person, which, for example, is under constant tension and in which calm never comes.
Through the physically inflicted pain that for a fraction of a second allows a break from oneself, distracts, tricks the head, the brain - relaxation -
Therapeutic approaches are many. One possible method are rubber bands around the wrist, which, when snapped, are supposed to allow this brief pause in the mind without causing permanent damage.
A similar experience I had recently with Baywatch.
I was in a phase when sleep wasn’t working and getting rest was not an option. Baywatch, or more specifically Shauni (Erika Eleniak), became my solution for the next few weeks. Something about her and her red swimsuit was so poised, symmetrical and relaxing. With the second season, Shauni came with silicone, as was the fashion on Baywatch in the early 90s. Nothing was balanced and relaxing anymore! My insomnia set in again. I really don’t have anything against self-destruction, it just has to be absolutely intentional and not a botch job.
And painting? Painting is also a kind of self-destruction, in any case causing injury.
Life as a rubber band probably would have been more efficient. With real purpose!
Then I would certainly not have become a chain smoker, but would only have picked up a cigarette now and then for pure pleasure.
Milena Büsch
Restaging Geld
3. 11. – 4. 12. 2022
Tiny Mutual Admiration Societies, Vienna
Laundering money in the basement on Lyal Road in London was a hustle. The long night shifts at Hessische Kulturstiftung residency could get blurry sometimes when pushing the boundaries of labour the body can handle. But cookies kept the energy up late at night and so did Joan Baez. If the amount of conversations had been recorded then no-one could ever claim again that artists are slackers. On the contrary, I have to admit that I am relieved that these conversations stayed off tape. Anyway, I was there, where were you?
This is the restaging of Milena Büsch’s exhibition that was the third in line of five in total that Niklas Lichti hosted at Geld during his year long artist residency in Bow 2018. The supply of Käsespätzle and the liquid gluttony that me, Milena and other visitors demanded became a full time job for Niklas that year. The generous gesture was cool again. But generosity can also feel excluding for the ones not invited. I mean you can’t be generous to every single person in the whole wide world… or… maybe if we take turns, each one in their own capacity, each one in their own style.
But hosting is not paying for itself, and paintings are not painting themselves, someone has to deliver. Counterfeit money, fake surface, surface on surface, paint on paint, paint on a headless toy packed in plastic. The chicken production filled the walls under the hatch on the ground floor. It’s hard to avoid considering that geld is not only a germanic word for money, it is also the word for removing the testicles of a person or an animal. Maybe the currency-themed project space was not laundering money after all. Maybe all the images of cash was just a cover up for another kind of business.
- Tomas Rydin
Milena Büsch
*1980, Weingarten, Germany
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany
Education
2005-2011
HfBK Städelschule, Frankfurt, Prof. Michael Krebber
2010
Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Prof. Heimo Zobernig
2011
Meisterschülerin, HfBK Städelschule, Frankfurt, Prof. Michael Krebber
Solo exhibitions
2022
Auto Freizeit Motor Sport, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna, AT
Restaging Geld, Tiny Mutual Admiration Societies, Vienna, AT
2021
The Great, Paris Internationale 2021, w. FELIX GAUDLITZ, Paris, FR
2020
Auftragsarbeit, Forgo, Berlin, DE
2019
Battle Royale, FELIX GAUDLITZ, Vienna, AT
Geld, London, UK
2017
Milena Büsch, Die Welt 2017, Berlin, DE
2015
Milena Büsch, Diana Lambert, Vienna, AT
Group exhibitions
2021
Joint Ventures, FELIX GAUDLITZ at KOW, Berlin, DE
Floater, Galerie der Stadt Schwaz, Schwaz, AT
2020
Relax–it’s all online, Lars Friedrich, Berlin, DE
The Obvious, Art at Michael’s, Santa Monica, US
2019
MILK, Édouard Montassut, Paris, FR
2017
SIIEW, Anette Freudenberger, Vienna, AT
2016
The Gardeners Digest, Tibilisi, GE
2015
SIEW, Basis Projektraum, Frankfurt a.M. DE
2014
Maulwurf, WhiskyBar, Basis, Frankfurt a.M., DE
2013
The Cage, curated by Mark Von Schlegell, Nagel/Draxler, Cologne, DE
Publications