Geldräume

This illustrated book was published to coincide with the artist's exhibition of the same name at Kunst(Zeug)Haus Rapperswil-Jona.

Since 2007, Thomas Müllenbach has set his focus on the interior design seen in the customer areas of banks and insurance companies, in a large-scale study entitled Geldräume (Money Rooms). This resulted in a cycle consisting of 33 paintings in various formats and two lithographs. Among other things, the artist used pictures from a special supplement of the NZZ newspaper, which appeared to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the National Bank in 2007. Significantly, the artist did not visit the locations himself for his work, but rather used existing photographs, which for their part already cast a subjective view on the theme; the intention to create a positive image with staging is particularly evident in the images from the NZZ supplement. In this respect, the question arises as to the artist's intention in approaching these counters and customer reception halls. It is not so much the well-calculated staging of dignified respectability that interests him: Rather, it is the question of how these spaces, which can be described as actual places of transition in the area between the public and the closed world of banking and insurance institutions, function and of course the pictorial potential of counters or doors, desks or mirrored fronts.