Mario Pfeifer
Selected Artworks
Title: Blacktivist
Year: 2015
Medium: Single-channel video with sound and color
Duration: 5 minutes
Mario Pfeifer's work explores representational structures and conventions in the medium of film, in locations ranging from Mumbai to California to the Western Sahara. Conceiving each project out of a specific cultural situation, he researches socio-political backgrounds and weaves further cross-cultural, art historical, filmic, and political references into a richly layered practice, ranging from film and video installations to photographs and text installations.
New York-based hip hop trio the Flatbush ZOMBiES’ music video for “Blacktivist” has 2.5 million YouTube views. In it, a likeness of President Obama kneels in front of the ZOMBiES (who stand in front of a mash-up between the Confederate flag and that of ISIS) with a bag over his head, prepped for decapitation; Defense Distributed-designed guns are plucked out of 3D printers by potentially felonious hands; Robert Downey Jr. dons blackface in Tropic Thunder; and Eric Garner meets his death at the hands of the NYPD. “Blacktivist” is likely the most widely viewed piece of video art in history. That’s because while the music and lyrics are by the Flatbush ZOMBiES, the video is the work of German multidisciplinary artist Mario Pfeifer.
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“All of the projects that I’ve realized in the last seven years grew out of a cultural, geographic location. I need the location to be able to start working,” says Pfeifer, who is currently in Brazil working on his next film. “Blacktivist came out of my desire to work with rap musicians. And the most natural way to work with rap musicians is to produce music. Since I’m a video producer I can only produce visuals.”
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Selected Solo Exhibitions
2016
Museum of Contemporary Art – GFZK, Leipzig
ACUD, Berlin
2015
Fotomuseum Winterthur, Suisse
KOW, Berlin
Ludlow38, New York, USA
Circa Projects, Newcastle, UK
One Night Only, Oslo, Norway
2014
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Concepción, Chile
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile
Galeria Macchina, Santiago de Chile
2013
KHOJ, New Delhi, India
Project 88, Mumbai, India
2012
Circa Projects, Sunderland, UK
2011
Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden
KOW, Berlin
2010
Weserburg - Museum für Moderne Kunst, Bremen