Mathieu Mercier

Drum and Bass 2, 2002

With his work group Drum and Bass Mathieu Mercier refers to a geometric/pictorial composition principle that was developed by Piet Mondrian in the early 1920s and was based on black lines as well as the primary colors blue, red and yellow. Mondrian endeavored to create the idea of universal harmony in this way. Mercier transforms Mondrian’s compositions into three-dimensional shapes by arranging trivial items on shelves. However, Mercier’s arrangements return the individual ‘emotional arbitrariness’ castigated by Mondrian back to art – color and shape, defined by functional objects on the part of Mercier, are permitted as subjective carriers of emotions. The work’s title, Drum and Bass, serving at the same time as a label for an extremely innovative form of techno music in the 1990s, conjures up associations with Mondrian’s magnificent late works – Broadway Boogie-Woogie and Victory Boogie-Woogie – which he created after he had emigrated in the USA.