Impressions of Youth in an Epoch of Death: The Beginnings and Ends of Vetjylien N'gyrz
23 September 2014
A performance, and an exhibition in Kunstverein München’s window display from 24 September to 2 November 2014
For the inaugural event in Kunstverein München’s new Autumn series k.m codex, artist’s Veit Laurent Kurz and Julien Nguyen have created a special window display dedicated to their fictitious character, the crypto-polymath Vetjylien N’gyrz.
The first iteration of N’gyrz was the basis for the exhibition Flowers of Paranoia in Frankfurt earlier this year, where the character – an ongoing collaborative project by Kurz and Nguyen – was introduced as an enduring influence for the apocryphal occult-band Servants Order ov Ancient Psychik Youth (S.O.A.P.Y). Following this, the artists use Kunstverein München’s window display as an appendix to their false historicisation of N’gyrz in the literary vein of mythoposeia – a genre of expansive mythology to works of fiction.
An aged rock wall is installed as the backdrop for materials relating to the character’s early life as a botanist on the cusp of a formative moment that leads him to perverse thought and experimentation. Fashioned in the style of a grotto or early Christian catacomb, the display is infused with rusty tech, scepters and a veneration icon of a young N'gyrz.
As part of k.m codex, a programme dedicated to expanded practices of self-publishing, experimental writing, bespoke design, and collecting and displaying print media.