This publication Contradicting Statements documents John Miller's early video work of the same name from 1977. The video shows language as something unstable, whose meaning cannot be fixed. This early exploration of linguistic and communicative structures points to central themes in Miller's later work, in which everyday situations and cultural systems are examined for their implicit rules and power relations.

Miller writes about this work: "The imperative to contradict creates an absurd void at its center. As though a function of a miniature neural network, the cast behaves as quasi-automatons. Control is modulated, not absolute. The performers laugh at their instrumentalization, mocking the rules they inevitably obey. […] Perhaps, as we enter a new era of overarching artificial intelligence, Contradicting Statements might offer a glimpse into a fragile past, still alive with paths not taken.”

After a screening of the video, there will be a discussion with John Miller, Melanie Ohnemus, Benedikt Reichenbach, and Anna Lena Seiser.

John Miller (b. 1954 in Cleveland / USA) is an artist and writer based in New York and Berlin. He has had retrospective exhibitions at Kunsthaus Glarus (2024); Schinkel Pavillon, Berlin (2020); ICA Miami (2016); Kunsthalle Zurich (2009); Kunstverein in Hamburg and La Magasin, Grenoble (1999). His publications include Mike Kelley: Educational Complex (Brussels: JRP/Ringier, 2009), The Price Club: Selected Writings (Geneva: JRP/Ringier, 2000), and The Ruin of Exchange: Selected Writings (Zurich, New York: JRP/Ringier, 2012). Miller is a professor of Professional Practice in the Art History Department at Barnard College, New York City.