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Klaus vom Bruch

November 14, 2015 to Februar 13, 2016
Potsdamer Str. 97, 10785 Berlin

Kinder des Olymp, 1974-77 (Confetti-Version 2015)
102 Inkjet-prints on cardboard-paper
each 50 x 70 cm, in different coloured frames
each Edition of 4

Klaus vom Bruch presents the complete series of ‘Kinder des Olymps’ at Helga Maria Klosterfelde Edition after a first successful showing of a large selection of the series at this year’s Art Cologne, and in doing so, he sends us on a journey in time back to the future of Art. His photographs are bacchantic snap shots and intimate portraits of a young generation of artists who mutually and playfully crowned themselves, with loosely woven wreaths, the last of the Avantgarde and who have today become legends.

Their faces, although well known to us, are lost in reverie. But we can recognise traits of these people who are now famous and mostly pictured striking poses. Klaus vom Bruch’s historic photographs, however, reveal innocence, thrownness, naivety and the alternative world that made their art possible in the first instance. In his autobiography, Klaus vom Bruch writes: “From 1973, inside of a close circle of artists, intellectuals, gallerists and groupies, I began to take snap shots with a Japanese 35mm camera. […] I was the youngest of a mostly happy troupe who moved in a system of attitudes and actions. […] All of the people photographed later became so-called cultural key players, even if only momentarily. Or, formulated in an anthropological way: Clan chiefs within a delimited claim of familial, sexual or matrimonial relationships.” Klaus vom Bruch’s series is held in the permanent collection of the Kunstmuseum Bonn.

The artists monograph titled “Aus dem Leben einer Luftschlange – eine autobiografische Montage” will be published by Walther König in January of 2016.

Klaus vom Bruch: After studying at CalArts, the Californian Institute of Arts, Klaus vom Bruch brought a new way of working with images, influenced by new music, to the Rhineland in the 70’s where these seeds of images produced by electronic technology fell on fertile land. The WDR studio for electronic music in Cologne was known at the time as the epicentre of new trends in Europe and emerged around the international artists Nam June Paik and John Cage.

Totally in the spirit of the then free West, a new generation, supported by influential and independent institutions, explored the electronic image, television and new forms of distribution. Klaus vom Bruch entered into the consciousness of a new art history with his first video tapes that pursued the communication of art, instead of the possession of the art object.
Text: Sassa Trülzsch

For further information, please contact Alfons Klosterfelde at +49 30 97005099 or office@helgamariaklosterfelde.de
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