JÜRGEN KLAUKE AND PROF. DR. STEPHAN BERG

German artist Jürgen Klauke (*1943) is considered a pioneer of body art, performance art, and photography, significantly influenced the art scene of a young Federal Republic of Germany. Currently, selected works from his “Transformer” series from the early 1970s are on display during the RAY - Triennial of Photography at the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (FFF), addressing aspects of identity.

Celina Lunsford, RAY curator and Artistic Director of FFF will introduce the event while Jürgen Klauke and Prof. Dr. Stephan Berg, Director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn, will consider the Triennial theme of “Echoes.” Emphasis will be place on the relevance of Klauke’s early works, the significance of body and gender, identity, and society.

This event took place on the occasion of RAY – Triennial of Photography “Echoes” and was part of the RAY lecture series at the Museum MMK für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main.

Jürgen Klauke (*1943, Germany) is a unique figure in contemporary art, paving the way for conceptually using the photographic medium for ideas, process and sequencing making it an inherent theme of his art. He has addressed the issue of gender difference more emphatically and radically than others, sometimes bringing the aspects of identity to an extreme with provocative images. He refers to this as the “aestheticization of the existential”. Klauke participated in Documenta 6 and 8 and the Venice Biennale in 1980. Major national and international solo exhibitions have honoured his work, including at the Nationalgalerie, Berlin; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, Japan; The Museum of Modern Art, Shiga; Rudolfinum, Prague, and Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn. The artist lives and works in Cologne.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Berg (*1959, Germany) is a curator and has been the director of the Kunstmuseum Bonn since 2008. He earned his PhD in German studies. Since 1986, he has worked as a freelance publicist in the field of visual arts for several publications including: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Kunstforum, Kunstbulletin, Artist, and Neue Bildende Kunst. From 1990 to 2000, he managed the Kunstverein Freiburg. Concurrently, from 1995 to 2002, he had teaching assignments in art theory and art history at the University of Freiburg, the State Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart, and the University of Hanover. From 2001 to 2008, he was the director of the Kunstverein Hanover. Since 2004, he has been an honorary professor at the Braunschweig University of Art.