The video installation Bel Air (2011) shows the power struggle of four men (all played by German actor Christoph Bach) during a road trip through the Everglades National Park. Through video and photography, the work of Niklas Goldbach potentially multiplies to infinity the identity of the individual, who is reproduced and made uniform in a curious form of standardization, participating in space and revealing natural and socio-political aspects which are normally hard to discern. Goldbach expresses the theme of the power of the individual in his relationship not just with things, but with his image too. With a dose of irony he effects a multiplication of equality in order to represent the standardization that affects present-day society. This theme is present in his video Bel Air: the video takes us on an inner journey, on a real trip by car through the deserted landscape of the Everglades National Park near Miami, in which actor Christoph Bach plays the part of four different characters who represent the roles and power games that take place in human behaviour. In this story, the idea of standardization of the individual is taken to the point where a man becomes yet another object and element to be observed by himself.

Exhibition text Click or Clash? Strategies of Collaboration. Second Stage, Galleria Bianconi, Milano, Italy
Curated by Julia Draganović and Elena Forin

In his video works, photographs and sculptures, Niklas Goldbach questions the relation between hierarchic societal structures and individual, liberal courses of action. Goldbach's protagonists – dressed in the garment of the urban prototype in white shirts and black trousers and referred to as "representatives" or "placeholders" by the artist – colonize seemingly epic stages of modern architectural complexes, postmodern urban environments or alleged paradises defying civilization, all finding their commonality as places oscillating between utopia, dystopia and heterotopia, while lacking any clearance for an escape. Using elaborate post-production, in the video Bel Air (2011) four of Goldbach's representatives negotiate solely via nonverbal communication the various levels of hierarchal conflicts whose result can only anticipate evil. While letting his protagonists, all played by German award-winning actor Christoph Bach, act the entire repertoire of male body language as encoded by the media, the parallels to the schizophrenic psychological situation of the individual or the society he is born into are hard to ignore.

Exhibition text House Of Cards, Grey Noise Gallery, Dubai
Curated by Viktor Neumann

Niklas Goldbach hinterfragt in seinen Videoarbeiten, Fotografien und Skulpturen das Verhältnis zwischen hierarchischen Gesellschaftsstrukturen und individuellen, freiheitlichen Handlungsoptionen. Goldbachs Protagonisten – im Gewand des urbanen Prototyps in weißem Hemd und schwarzer Hose gekleidet und von ihm selber als „Stellvertreter" bezeichnet – besiedeln dabei episch anmutenden Bühnen moderner Architekturensembles, postmoderner urbaner Lebenswelten oder vermeintlich zivilisationstrotzender Paradiese, deren Gemeinsamkeit sich in der Verwendung als zwischen Utopie, Dystopie und Heterotopie oszillierenden Orten ergibt, denen wenig Freiraum für einen Ausbruch gegeben scheint. In Goldbachs mittels aufwendiger Postproduktion entstandenem Video Bel Air (2011) verhandeln vier seiner Stellvertreter alleine mittels nonverbaler Kommunikation die verschiedenen Stufen hierarchisierter Konflikte, deren Ausgang nur Böses vorausahnen lässt. Während Goldbach seine Protagonisten, allesamt von dem deutschen Schauspieler und Fernsehpreisträger Christoph Bach gespielt, das gesamte Repertoire einer männlich kodierten und medial transportierten Körpersprache durchspielen lässt, sind die Parallelen zu einer schizophrenen psychologischen Situation des Einzelnen oder der Gesellschaft, in die er hineingeboren wird, kaum zu übersehen.

Ausstellungstext House Of Cards, Grey Noise Gallery, Dubai
Kuratiert von Viktor Neumann

Credits:
With: Christoph Bach
Assistance: Viktor Neumann
Light: Mirko Fricke
Camera Assistance: Stefan Zeyen
Make-Up: Mel Willmann
Sound Design: Christian Obermaier