MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main

http://www.mmk-frankfurt.de

"And I saw light in the form of a river blazing with radiance." This is Dante's description of what he perceived as he entered the tenth circle of heaven in paradise. Throughout history, light phenomena have been interpreted as religious visions. What for some is a spiritual accomplishment following hours of seclusion, is explained by others as a physiological reaction following a period of reduced stimulation of the sense of sight. 'Prisoner's cinema' is the term used to refer to the varicoloured play of light which prison inmates – but also pilots and long-distance truck drivers – have reported on. They see it when they gaze into a visually unmodulated and virtually unchanging environment for long stretches at a time. What they are actually experiencing is a phenomenon determined not by the outside world, but by the brain. This is how the brain reacts to an 'undersupply' of visual stimulae. 'Prisoner's cinema' is also presumed to be a scientific explanation for ap paritions.

Melvin Moti's 35mm film The Prisoner's Cinema (2008) forms the core of the solo exhibition When No Means On, which – on view at the MMK Zollamt until 18 January 2009 – presents a number of works never yet shown in Germany. Film is Moti's primary medium. Recently, however, he has begun showing his films in conjunction with works in other media. When No Means On continues this approach. Apart from two films, the exhibition includes photographs, a drawing, a text-based work and an installation in the public realm.