Markus Müller

Markus Müller
Free Music Production

Corbett vs. Dempsey
2156 w. Fulton st. Chicago, IL 60622 | FREE | 3:00 pm

Corbett vs. Dempsey is pleased to welcome Markus Müller, who will talk about his personal involvement with Free Music Production (FMP), which includes working on exhibitions at the Haus der Kunst, Munich, and the Akademie der Künste, Hanseatenweg, Berlin, in 2017 and 2018 respectively. These shows resulted in Müller's book Free Music Production: FMP: The Living Music (Wolke, 2022).

Müller will focus on the specific FMP/Chicago relationship, exemplified by Peter Brötzmann’s commitment to the city and John Corbett’s numerous activities beginning in the 1990s. Furthermore he will contextualize the remarkable recent focus on the label and various musicians FMP worked with, including the appearance of books on Hans Reichel, Cecil Taylor, and Peter Brötzmann that were published in the last two years.

Müller inherited FMP from Jost Gebers in 2024 and will also sketch his future plans for the imminent reawakening of the label in the course of this year.

Markus Müller is the Founder and Director of BUREAU MUELLER, a boutique communication and consultancy firm in Berlin. Among his many activities, he has been the curatorial assistant of the artistic director Okwui Enwezor at the 56th International Art Exhibition Venice Biennale. Former communication clients include the Visual Arts Program of EXPO 2020 (2021), Dubai, German Pavilion at the 54th, 55th, and 57th Venice Biennial in 2011, 2013, and 2017 respectively, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the National Art Museum of Ukraine (Kiev), the Prince Claus Fund, Amsterdam, La Triennale 2012 (Paris), Documenta (13), the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, South-Korea, Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt MMK, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, the LEICA Ernst Leitz Museum, Wetzlar, Jüdisches Museum Berlin, the Resnick Center for Herbert Bayer Studies, The Aspen Institute, CO, USA.

Before founding BUREAU MUELLER in 2007, Müller was the Deputy Director and Head of Communication of KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. Müller was Director of Communications for Documenta11, Kassel, and was responsible for organizing the first four platforms of Documenta11 in Vienna, New Delhi, Berlin, St. Lucia and Lagos (1999 – 2002). He worked as Director of Communications for the 3rd and 4th Berlin Biennial (2004 and 2006) as well as Sculpture. Projects in Münster 1997. From 1995 until 2002 he was Head of Communication at the Westfälische Landesmuseum in Münster.

Markus Müller has curated a small number of exhibitions, among others ECM – A Cultural Archeology (together with Okwui Enwezor), Haus der Kunst, Munich 2012/2013, Throbbing Gristle, TG@KW, Annual Industrial Report, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2005. He has co-curated I got Rhythm, Jazz and the Visual Arts at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (2015 – 2016) and conceived Improvise NOW!!! at Haus der Kunst from April 2016 to August 2017. His exhibition on Free Music Production (FMP): The Living Music took place at Haus der Kunst, Munich, and Akademie der Künste, Berlin, in 2017/2018. In Fall 2018 he co-curated Ecstasy – Transcendental Experiences in Art, Music and Dance at the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (nominated by art – Das Kunstmagazin as one of the best exhibitions of 2018), travelling to Zentrum Paul Klee Bern in 2019.

At Bureau Mueller, he has curated exhibitions with Fischli/Weiss, Heimo Zobernig, Agnes Martin, Stan Douglas, Jenny Holzer, Peter Roehr, Günter Fruhtrunk, Michaela Meise, Birgit Hein, Terre Thaemlitz, William Eggleston, Perlon Records, Bettina Allamoda, Albert Oehlen, Ursula Boeckler, and Thomas Scheibitz (2007-2022).

His book Free Music Production (FMP): The Living Music, Wolke Verlag 2022, was called “Best of 2022” and “…one of the most eagerly anticipated books of the year…” by Soundohm, “one of the best books of 2022” by The Wire Music Magazine, and “Top 5. The best books about Jazz 2022.” by Bayerischer Rundfunk. His essay: "He whose guitar gently weeps, Hans Reichel: Schalk und Schönheit" was published as part of Hans Reichel: Daxophonie, Wolke Verlag 2023. In 2024 he contributed an essay "Cecil Taylor: American Royalty" to Phil Freeman’s first full-length biography on Cecil Taylor, In the Brewing Luminous: The Life & Music of Cecil Taylor, Wolke Verlag 2024.

From 2003 to 2015 Müller was a lecturer at the postgraduate Institute for Art in Context at the Universität der Künste, Berlin. Since 1999 he has been a regular contributor to Texte zur Kunst, Berlin.