In the Royal Room of the Central Station (Sala Reale, Stazione Centrale) in Milan, the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi presents MEECHFIEBER, German artist John Bock’s new film, from November 9th through December 5th 2004.

Animated by a kaleidoscopic profusion of objects, materials, fabrics and bizarre coloured prosthetics, John Bock’s films and videos take their first inspiration from reality, altering it through magnification or deformation. The elements and ideas composing our daily life become an endless parade of clowns, puppets, circus animals and acrobats. MEECHFIEBER is a fantasy dictionary of the different personas populating the absurd and surreal world of John Bock, one of the most interesting characters of today’s German art scene. Set in the rural atmosphere of Gribbohm farm, where John Bock was born and raised, MEECHFIEBER is a grotesque movie in which two farm workers tend to hypertrophic machines, bric-a-brac spaceships and animals in costumes playing a bizarre series of roles.

Featuring two professional actors, Anne Tismer and Ralf Rudolph, the latter seen in Run Lola Run (1999), MEECHFIEBER is John Bock’s first real movie: a slapstick comedy and imaginary trip inside John Bock's displaced and surreal personal micro-world, MEECHFIEBER is a co-production between the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi and the Carnegie International 2004-05 in Pittsburgh.

This will be John Bock’s first solo show in an Italian institution. Along with the screening of MEECHFIEBER, John Bock — half mad scientist, half Buster Keaton — has decided to present a personal selection of his video works. In GAST a hare scuttles around a sitting room between furniture, carpet, armchairs and carrots; in BOXER two clowns wrestle in an improvised ring wearing masks, colourful costumes, and edible limbs; in ALICE COOPER the artist, disguised as a rock star, dances as if in a crowded gig; TRAIL OF DEUTSCHE BANK features a sped up fight between the artist and a lawnmower; and in A GENTLEMAN WORKS WHEN A GENTLEMAN WORKS A WORK, Bock and two puppets reveal today’s uncanny secrets, mixing up different languages and ideas.

The exhibition at the Royal Room of the Central Station is not a retrospective, but rather an introspective look inside the bizarre dreams of John Bock – a stroll beyond Alice's mirror.

John Bock was born in Gribbohm in 1965. He lives and works in Berlin. He has had solo exhibitions in a number of international institutions including MoMA, New York; Kunstwerke, Berlin; Kunsthalle Basel; Secession, Wien; Institute of Contemporary Art, London. John Bock's installations, videos and performances have been exhibited in some of the most prestigious group exhibitions and biennials worldwide including two editions of the Venice Biennale; Manifesta 5, San Sebastian, Spain; Yokohama Triennial, Japan; and Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany.

Under the patronage of:
Comune di Milano, Cultura e Musei, Settore Musei e Mostre;
Provincia di Milano, Cultura e beni culturali;
Regione Lombardia, Culture, Identità e Autonomie della Lombardia

Thanks to:
Grandi Stazioni;
Fondazione Cariplo