Daseinsrenovierung, aus der Werkgruppe "Desaströses Ich", 1996

About the Work

Jürgen Klauke's works focus on the study of the human body and sexual identity. To this end, he carries out performative presentations without an audience which then lead to photographic works. The artist practises vivisection, that is to say, an examination of a living object, on a dissecting table. That, at least, is what it looks like when he suspends himself from cables and in ritual sequences undergoes a photographic "renovation of his existence" as he hovers above white cushions. Klauke's quirky presentations describe the artist's "inner milieu" in the scenic interplay of his own person with objects. He translates the performative role-play into allegorical pictures, in which the dialogue with fetish-like props in a series of lustrous black photographs unfolds as a sort of existential pantomime.