Notes
Talking to Mul about the way he develops his work is an intruiging pusuit. Before you know it, you’ve entangled yourself in the most abstract of concepts and structures. Still, some clarifying comparisons can be made. In that respect Mul’s work resembles cinema, although there is no coherent story line. “That’s right, I’m not too interested in the great static narrative. But my films should bear no trace of the other extreme: arbitrariness. So I look for as much coherence as is necessary to envoke an atmosphere or a theme without it immediately becoming a story.”
In order to curtail arbitrariness, Mul has added five keywords to his images. These vary from formal notions such as ‘landscape’ and ‘portrait’ to concepts as ‘day’, ‘night’ or ‘infrared’. He then uses these concepts as a kind of musical notes with which he composes a rhythm. A virtual rhythm, to be sure, but in essence no different from the rhythms we know through music. Everyone knows how compelling a catching composition can be to the ear. Mul wants to achieve the same with his images.
To make matters more complex, however, Mul doesn’t limit himself to imagery. Modern life reveals itself to all the senses and thus sound and the experience of space make important contributions to his installations. This he doesn’t do himself, but rather leaves to his mates: “high-quality guys”. Jochem Paap, better known as Speedy J, is the man behind the sound. Whilst he provided the first part of ‘Generating Live’ (last year, at Middelburg’s Vleeshal) with a fierce, fast drum ‘n bas-like mix, this time around he has restricted himself to an almost ambient-type rhythm of city noise, with here and there a soft tune or a recognizable word. As a result, this installation does not appear to be a clip, but has a more cinematic, intimate impact.
Add to that the insistent text images by Koot – lines from film classics, subjected to graphic design – and this second version of regenerated city life from all corners of the world (from Hong Kong and Tokyo to Rotterdam and Romania) becomes even more compelling. The slogans shouldn’t be read as subtitles. Yet they add an extra dimension to what you see and hear. Thus, to your mind, the lonely busker and the cruising prostitute are easily linked to the words it’s very difficult to live without privacy and pride, isn’t it. But before you have the chance to answer this probing question, you’ve already moved three bridges and a nocturnal meeting along, swept away by the dynamic pulse of the city that never, nowhere, stops.

‘Generating Live 2’ by Geert Mul, in collaboration with Jochem Paap (Speedy J), Koot and Lucas van der Velden.