Visual artist Michael Just studied at the Kunstakademie Duesseldorf and received a Master of Fine Arts at Goldsmiths, University of London. Subsequently, he completed the Whitney Museum ISP in 2011. He has exhibited his work in several group and solo shows, amongst others in Berlin, London and New York. During his stay at Villa Aurora, Just will work on the project “Below the Surface.” The title refers to a short film script by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno that was published in 1945. Michael Just understands his project as a kind of archaeology (“below the surface” of contemporary Los Angeles) that attempts to examine the paradoxical implications of the concept of Los Angeles, in particular modernist utopian ideas of progress, freedom and “California Dreamin’” and the historic manifestations of their dystopian opposite in the form of the riots of 1965 and 1992.  The media that he intends to use for his project are film and video; they are eventually supposed to be shown in a specific spatial context as a three channel film / video installation.