To the overlong title, at least this much: Tilo Riedel is on all kinds of stages, including language. It is in this very domain that he has even won a prize for political poetry. (We’d love to provide you with an example but would certainly not want to try a translation of his lyrical work into English; see above for a German original). On his last solo show in 2012 at Vincenz Sala Paris we said: Tilo is railing (see our past shows). That didn’t change. And there is, of course, no end to railing (the show’s title is a case in point). However, with all these railing chants Tilo is still perfectly soft-spoken. His railing is more like a prayer and evidence of an endless ironic, by times sarcastic way of reading, and relating to, everyday world. And language, often combined with everyday images, is the stage.

But there are other stages and a long history with stages. In the 1990s, Tilo enjoyed quite a carreer in theatre together with his sister, Jutta Riedel. They produced and co-directed their pieces and the sets and costumes were amongst Tilo’s contributions. Most likely key to his conversion from minimalist painter to a “stage worker” constantly checking for the objects, furniture, images and - it’s theatre - the language we’re living with.   

We are very pleased that after Paris Tilo is now coming to Berlin for another solo show. It’ll be a stage again. This time a ramp, made of Euro pallets. With a slight incline. So it is sloping and in such a way that the “image-personel” on the ramp is in danger of slipping. The ramp is occupying most of the gallery space hence it does engage the viewer, who feels a bit just from looking at it. Tilo's work (incl. in the section sculpture/installation) moves metonymically across the ramp, the stage, the linguistic and pictorial space into the seemingly offside. A movement that never reaches a firm end. A work that in its motion draws in everyday words, images, bodies and spaces, and in doing so finds its very own all-absorbing iconography.

Eventually, that's how Tilo’s political poetry, his never-ending railing works, and how he creates images of persistently irritating conciseness. Join us on the ramp!