Matthew Barney turns a museum into a fever dream you can't escape.
In September 2021, Barney and Bepler presented a live performance at Schaulager titled ‘Catasterism in Three Movements.’ CATASTERISM draws from documentation of those performances and expands the narrative with cinematic scenes filmed in the galleries and workspaces of Schaulager. The film elaborates on the characters’ private rituals and deploys forensic examinations of artworks within Schaulager to evoke connections between the material qualities of art objects and the ephemeral qualities of the music. The project continues Barney’s and Bepler’s long history of collaborative projects with distinguished musicians in experimental and unconventional settings.
Direction
Barney treats Schaulager as a living, breathing organism.
Sound
Bepler's score dissolves the line between music and object.
Cinematography
Forensic close-ups that fetishize every surface.
Director
Matthew Barney
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Catasterism refers to the mythological transformation of mortals into stars—Barney literalizes this as material transmutation.
The Schaulager was specifically designed by Herzog & de Meuron as a hybrid museum-storage facility; Barney weaponizes its clinical architecture against itself.
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