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typisch deutsch?

2014

Cologne | Museum für Angewandte Kunst | Cologne

solo exhibition

The ‘typisch deutsch?’ (‘typical German?’) solo exhibition, at the MAKK in Cologne, aims to reappraise cultural labels, to question stereotypes and open a discourse on German identity in the twenty-first century. By interpreting a selection of ‘typical’ German attributes, including industriousness (Fleiß); cleanliness (Reinlichkeit); melancholy (Schwermut) and conviviality (Geselligkeit), viewers are asked to contemplate German archetypes and clichés from a different perspective, questioning the very essence of what it means to be typisch deutsch.

Works on display include Der Unendliche Geist (The Endless Mind/Spirit): a four-metre high cast-bronze tower of books, built from significant works from the German Arts and Sciences; and Pünktlichkeit (punctuality): a work composed of a custom-made digital clock that measures milliseconds, alluding to Germany’s history of precise timekeeping.

Distanz published the typisch deutsch? exhibition catalogue in 2014. It is available in selected, international bookstores.

Exhibited Works

Angst

Der Unendliche Geist

Geselligkeit

Schwermut

Ausfahrt

Herzschuss

Bodenständigkeit

Romantik

Pünktlichkeit

Fleiß

Memento Mori

Gaudi

Reinlichkeit

Die/Das Maß

Emsigkeit

Pflichtbewusstsein

Sehnsucht

Amtsschimmel

Wanderlust

Sorgfalt

Genauigkeit

FKK

Schadenfreude