A white horse is standing in downtown Marl amid deserted architecture at the crack of dawn. The animal moves but slowly, seeming almost like a sculpture itself. In her video work Cornered Star of 2018, the artist Melanie Manchot portrays, through intense black-and-white shots, the urban landscape and this unusual visitor that she had brought into town for the piece. Melanie Manchot’s projects operate at the interface of documentary and staged form, approaching certain sites, public spaces, and groups or communities with great sensitivity. The artist’s interest is focused on building individual and collective identity, and she works with video, film, and photography.
For Ruhr Ding: Schlaf, she has developed a video piece, which is devoted to life at night. With her movie camera in tow, she accompanies nine protagonists from the region – who are, in the broadest possible sense, night workers – to different places throughout the Ruhr Area. The female protagonists, amongst them an employee from the Bogestra transport authority, a pole dancer, a baker, a bouncer, and a cleaner each meander alone through the nocturnal rooms of the Tresor.West club, through the cellar of Villa Hügel, and behind the scenes of a bowling centre in Dortmund.
The video work is being shown in the disco room at WerkStadt in Witten. In addition, the Märkisches Museum Witten is presenting a solo exhibition by Melanie Manchot in collaboration with Urbane Künste Ruhr.
The artist studied at New York University and at the Royal College of Art in London.
Melanie Manchot (*1966 in Witten) lives in London.
