The core of the exhibition is a video broadcast of every German game played and watched by the artist. Depending on the success or failure of the German team, the result will be either happy or sad. The show will also feature famous footballers past and present. Interspersed within the football context will be works shot all over the world that make up Teller’s universe and present thinking: they are unrelated to football, but related to nature, animals, humans, and the world.
Teller’s style is hard to pinpoint. In almost every series he defies commonly accepted ideals of beauty. At the same time, his works are humorous and often personal, featuring his family and his surroundings. The exhibition at Garage will include a multitude of old and new photographs, presenting a grand narrative that brings together football, personal history, fandom, and other themes that are important either in the context of this summer’s events or the artist’s own life. Visitors will be introduced to Teller’s signature perspective of the engaging observer, portraying a variety of sitters and subjects, as well as exposing himself to the lens.
At the center of the exhibition is the famous and provocative—in terms of both form and content—shot of a naked Teller with a beer bottle and a football standing on his father’s grave. Family trauma is intertwined with football: Teller’s strict and headstrong father did not think much of the game. The exhibition will feature parts of the series Siegerflieger (2014), named after the German national football team’s airplane. In Siegerflieger, Teller follows the team’s 2014 World Cup successes on TV with his friends and family and captures the euphoria of celebrating their victory in the 2014 World Cup among a crowd of fans in Berlin. An earlier series, Naked on the Soccer Field (2002), conveys the sense of disappointment after Germany’s loss to Brazil in the final of the 2002 World Cup.
The exhibition is organized by Kate Fowle, Garage Chief Curator, with Valentin Diaconov, Garage Curator and Andrey Misiano, Garage Research Curator.
