Curated by Detlev F.Neufert
EXHIBITION: 21st December 2008 to 18th January 2009
Opening: 21st December 2008 7pm -10pm

www.muskboy.com

THE CURATOR

Artists have no nationality. Their home is the global art village where amazing creativity, alternative ways of thinking, and provocative ideas come alive.

An artist is an artist.

Their job is to develop emotion and understand the secrets of humanity.

Through its various forms, art unravels our conceptions: colors we never have seen before in a painting, new combinations of forms and materials in sculpture and architecture, unexpected rhythms and melodies in music, mind opening scenes in theatre and films, and words that touch the bottom of our souls in poetry.

Art also functions as a tool for social justice. Artists force a society to confront its injustice and exploitation, and on the other side restore dignity to its downtrodden and often forgotten victims.

Artists are the builders of the future not its destroyers. What today is avant-garde tomorrow is common cultural heritage. Does anyone question Picasso’s vision today? And yet what a scandal he and his friends ignited when they first showed their cubistic creations! They foresaw the catastrophes of the Second World War and expressed it on canvas. They were true artists who embraced the pain of being misunderstood and accepted going hungry or even death in order to speak truth to power.

Some people will never understand why art exists. Maybe one day they will find that something is lacking from their existence. In the best cases they then start to patronize art, as the Rockefellers and Guggenheims did. In the worst case they censor and burn the art – this often includes the artists, like the Nazis did just a few generations ago under Hitler. Maybe you know that he tried to be an artist himself and failed.

There are still some Hitler devils on this planet. Big ones and smaller ones. Their aim is the same: greed. Greed for power and greed for money. Just take a look at your daily newspaper.

The reception and reaction art provokes is a good indicator of how civilized a country and its leaders are.

But it is not always the big scandal, the new and difficult creations that open our eyes and enjoy widespread media attention. Not everyone is a Damian Hirst, sometimes what moves us occurs in small niches from an artist who simply wants to express his view of beauty and Eros. This includes not invoking common tricks like a gargantuan-size canvas or a planned provocation to install his name into art magazines and museum directors’ telephone books.

“MUSKBOY” from Berlin is such an example. His art is humble, enriches your home, and is erotic in the best way: you feel the sweetness of the young and eternal God, ‘Eros’ who toys with us nearly everyday, seduces us, sometimes drives us crazy and always finds a new way to attract our attention. His business partner is ‘sex’ but this one is miles away from his master’s brilliance. It is a kind easy to get, especially when you have enough money in your pocket, but one quickly forgotten after you’ve paid him.

When we talk about MUSKBOY’s paintings we are at once one with Eros. Eros, the God of Greek mythology who knows no gender, no hate, no frontiers, no races and no sin. He loves to play with our deepest desires, smiles about our natural lust and enjoys our “oh’s” and “ah’s” when we fall in his wonderful traps.

Eros is MUSKBOY’s best teacher. Eros must love his pictures: beautiful adolescent boys and girls portrayed in a lucid but nevertheless clear and realistic way. Innocent bodies but not hiding their erotic truth in gestures and posing.

MUSKBOY was born in China. Love brought him to Berlin and love made him go away from his nation and culture. Being gay, he could not accept the suppressing and hateful reproaches of his native countrymen. He refused to live in hiding, among people intolerant of the way he was naturally. He said good-bye to his home, but not without peril. In Berlin he found himself in another culture where he even had to learn the language from the beginning. We as citizens of liberal-minded and democratic nations – well, we should not forget how long it took Westerners to set the framework for democracy (albeit shaky ones) and how much blood was sacrificed to provide basic freedoms for its citizens.

When I met MUSKYBOY for the first time in a Berlin café at the opening of some of his graphic works of Asian faces I immediately felt his sweetness and true character. He is not a made-up personality, provocateur, or attitude artist who uses art as an excuse for a bohemian life style.

Since meeting MUSKBOY I have enjoyed watching his work grow and become more disciplined as he develops his skills in different forms and materials. He grows slowly with Asian patience and the steady will to embody humans with the beauty he sees in us. He is not afraid of using decorative symbols or illustrating motives. His use of Maoist and Chinese traditional symbols and writings are his subtle way of inspiring an “EROTIC REVOLUTION”.

MUSKBOY has shown his art in Europe and America without any problems. He was officially invited to show his work at the OLYMPIC GAMES 2008 in BEJING. One day before the opening his pictures were censored by the Chinese Government.

MU MU is honored to show the forbidden work of ‘MUSKBOY’ in Bangkok. And we are sure you will enjoy it..

Detlev F. Neufert

THE ARTIST

MUSKBOY was born in China, since 2005 the young Chinese artist has lived and worked in Berlin. He held solo- and group exhibitions in Berlin, Cologne, Groningen and in a number of other cities. His work has been presented at international Art Fairs in Berlin, Cologne, Utrecht and Essen. During the Olympic Games he was selected and then censored by the Chinese government in the exhibition Olympics Fine Arts 2008 in Beijing. His works are held in private collections in Berlin, Cologne, London, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Rome and Amsterdam.

MUSKBOY looks for a way to combine the old Chinese traditional art with the modern, new technique. He has been drawing for over 10 years, found his own style and is still discovering further possibilities of expression.

His art comes from the deep, ancient soul of China and his love to his fatherland. He sees through different eyes of various cultures. By his way of erotica, the observer would be under the spell and feels the fascination of his models. So it makes a sensual atmosphere, but without obscenity.

ABOUT WORKS

Muskboy works visualise the longing for an open-minded gay bi les transgender - friendly China. Unfortunately exposing any explicit homo- and or transsexuality in Arts within present Chinese culture is prohibited.

To safeguard himself, his beloved family and his befriended pioneering gay bi les and transsexual community against the arbitrariness of Chinese authorities the artist prefers his pseudonym muskboy.

Muskboy wanders in his dreamy, mythological and erotic world of his art.

The paintings are his songs, poems and novels, he draws like dancing and singing, he’s in raptures over the eternal beauty of the life. In his artworks man enjoys not only with the eyes, man can also smell the fragrance, hear the melody and read the stories, because each work of Muskboy is alive.

Let the the journey begin, the artworks will take you into a new, erotic, Chinese world of Muskboy.

CENSORSHIP IN BEIJING

The honourable International Olympic Committee ( I.O.C. ) is patroness of the Olympic Fine Arts 2008 exhibition. At the day of the grand-opening the Ministry of Culture of VR CHINA excluded the watercolour drawing GO WEST! by Beijing-born artist Muskboy from its official Olympic exhibition.

A few days later the Ministry of Culture of VR CHINA also decided that the artwork GO WEST! will not be published in the official Olympic Fine Arts 2008 catalogue, and also will be excluded from the accompanying tour around the globe.

According to a spokesman of the organizing committee an official of the Ministry of Culture did turn up shortly before the grand-opening and decided, that the artwork GO WEST! created by Muskboy should be excluded immediately from the official Olympiad exhibition.

Shortly after, the Chinese interpreter of Agency Yorckberlin was informed by a spokesman of the organizing committee of Olympic Fine Arts 2008 exhibition, that the Ministry of Culture is going to ignore any communication regarding the artwork GO WEST!. The same spokesman frankly informed the Chinese interpreter of Agency Yorckberlin, that the Ministry of Culture is apparently not amused about male nudes too, ( especially the one with the butt exposed and a male hand, probably touching another butt ) in front of the Chinese flag.

Besides, the resting young man seems to be (according to the Ministry of Culture ) too powerless. Meanwhile, we have an overwhelming feedback, a lot of helping hands, all keenly interested in knowing the official reasons of censorship, and how we can shape together a firm guideline for a censorhipless Olympic Fine Arts exhibitions in the future.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Detlev Neufert is a German filmmaker who lives in Berlin and Bangkok. His documentaries for TV and cinema are highly distinguished. He has lectured in filmmaking at the University of California-Santa Barbara and organized the “Directors Film Festival” in Germany which hosted more than 100,000 visitors. His most recent full-length documentary about AIDS orphans in Thailand, “Heavens Meadow” won international recognition. The academy award nominated director Wolfgang Petersen calls it a “masterpiece.”

Neufert has written books and poetry and is an expert in European and Asian culture and Buddhist art. He works as a curator for “Paleo Art & Event” in Berlin and “MU MU Arthouse” in Bangkok.

ABOUT ‘MU MU arthouse’

‘MU MU arthouse’ is situated in the heart of Bangkok, a 5 minute walk from the famous ‘Malaysia Hotel’ which every taxi driver knows, on Soi Sri Bhumpen 106/1. It’s also just a mile away from ‘Lumpini Park’. It is an extraordinary art house with good drinks and special food and most importantly interesting people and fascinating artists.

‘MU MU’ has various meaning in different languages. In Greek longtime lovers say “ mu mu “ and it means “ mine mine.” In Thai it means: “sweet, cozy, lovely, relaxed“ so if someone says in “mu mu” to you in Thai, be happy. It means you found a sweet love. Maybe: THE LOVE.

It’s worth listening to.

‘MU MU’ hopes to hear it very often while you are here.

In the latest edition of the travel magazine “TRAVERSING THE |ORIENT”, the editor writes : “Mu Mu arthouse is a café and gallery space that is quickly gaining reputation as one of the premier locations for Bangkok’s thriving art scene.” Please, see the location map on the invitation card.