Christoph Schlingensief

This exhibition was the first attempt to present Christoph Schlingensief’s complete works. His radical nature, his obsessive need to go to extremes and his excessive demands on everyone involved in his work have carved Schlingensief a special place in today’s art world. His artistic path has taken him from film to theatre, performances, actions, installations, opera and the construction of a festival house in Africa. His theatre work inspired him to develop actionistic forms with audience integration which he used to found his own political party (Chance 2000, 1998) and a church (Church of Fear, 2003) – breaking with artistic conventions, boundaries and institutions.
The exhibition was chiefly based on archived material and focuses on the important events of Schlingensief’s artistic life. The films, productions, actions and performances bore witness to the times and societal circumstances in which they were created, focusing on issues like German history, fascism, church and family. Consequently, the exhibition aimed to emphasize the socio-historical and political context of the works and their socially controversial nature.

Curators: Klaus Biesenbach, Anna-Catharina Gebbers, Susanne Pfeffer