Artists

Christoph Schlingensief

Press release

We are delighted to announce the exhibition Christoph Schlingensief | Deutschlandsuche (Searching for Germany) as part of this year's Berlin Art Week. On view will be film and video works, photographs, objects, manuscripts, and documentary material from Schlingensief's work series Hamlet, Chance 2000 and Deutschlandsuche, some of them previously unpublished and on display for the very first time.

Christoph Schlingensief (*1960 in Oberhausen, † 2010 in Berlin) did not conceive of his work in terms of traditional genres, but rather merged film, theater, literature, performance, television, time-based media, visual arts, and political activism. For him, there were neither formal nor conceptual boundaries. Originally coming from film, he made use of all disciplines without the slightest fear of contact.

Consistent characteristics of Schlingensief’s works were a clear, striking language, the fascination with trash and the mainstream, whose mechanisms he exploited with relish, and an ethical and moral concern that he expressed through radical campaigns. The seriousness with which he questioned everyday life in Germany in the face of an insufficiently processed history went hand in hand with a humorous view of himself and others. His artistic practice was pervaded by a loud, challenging outcry that was not intended to scare, but to arouse and unite.

Schlingensief put his finger in the wound in order to heal. He was not interested in inner circles or “bubbles”, but claimed the big picture for himself. He did not seek confrontation with the “enemies” in order to marginalize or even eliminate them, but to win them over. His work and his art aimed at a “coexistence of the good.” He replaced ideology with a radical way of thinking that demanded contradictions and a mutual debate.