BERLIN.- Daadgalerie presents Damián Ortega - Man is the controller of the universe, on view through 27 October 2007. During his stay in Berlin, Damián Ortega collected various tools on the city’s flea markets. These utensils are assembled in Damián Ortega’s newest sculpture; an installation consisting of free-floating objects, baring the title Controller of the Universe. The arrangement of the tools follows from the principle underlying an exploded drawing, wherein each element seems propelled outward from an invisible center into the surrounding space.

The title of the exhibition refers to a mural by the Mexican artist Diego Rivera, which was commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller in 1933. Since this monumental work included a portrait of Lenin, Rockefeller ordered the work he had commissioned to be destroyed before its completion. Today, Rivera’s completed second version can be seen in the Palace of Fine Arts, Mexico City.

Damián Ortega was born in 1967 in Mexico. He gained widespread recognition with his VWTrilogy. Its second part Cosmic Things was shown on the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. Two years later, his work The Uncertainty Principle was on view in the Tate Modern. In 2004, he was invited to the 4th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art. In January 2007, Ortega, as a guest of the Artists-in-Berlin program of the DAAD and together with the Japanese artist Shimabuku, transformed the daadgalerie into a snack-bar for one week. It was in this bar, entitled Fish & Ships / Sakepirinha, where the guests of the Artists-in-Berlin program presented themselves.

Parallel to his exhibition at the daadgalerie, Damían Ortega is nominated for the Nationalgalerie Prize for Young Art 2007.