In Good Timing / Bad Timing, photographs
and films take form as sequential
compilations of many thousands
of still images. For the series in front
(2002), the German artist duo
M + M (Marc Weis and Martin de
Mattia) dissected television news
reports and political broadcasts, such
as Vladimir Putin’s 2007 speech at the
Munich Conference on Security, to create
works spanning the media of photography
and film. What at first glance
appears to be a complicated pattern of
horizontal stripes is revealed to be the
authority of television as a matrix of
miniature stills upon closer inspection.
Incorporating newsworthy spectacle
from the last nine years and mixing
military coverage with individual acts
of violence, a magnitude of images
reflecting the horrors of life every day
are transformed into abstract images of
colour and form.

In the series kurz vor fünf (shortly
before 5) (2007), shimmering horizontal
rows of still photographs are composed
of M + M’s three-minute-long films
made shortly before 5PM European
Central Time. Capturing day-to-day
activities in typical urban settings
around the world, the works reflect the
increasingly global flow of information
and the limited ability of the individual
to comprehend the whole. In a network
of fleeting picture associations, M + M
create an unnerving psychological commentary
on contemporary urban life.