Kasseler KunstVereinsHeim - Program July - Alexej Koschkarow
Saturday, July 7, 2007, 8 p.m.
Alexej Koschkarow (D)
"Ägyptische Toilette"
Installation
Alexej Koschkarow's performances and sculptures exude proud pathos and the decadent staleness of bygone feudal days. Lavishly and with great care and precision he creates a solemn and stately atmosphere, only to destroy it again and turn it into the exact opposite. You find yourself standing before a display case crafted of dark high-grade wood, over three metres tall (2000), containing rare pieces from a chamber of wonders which invite the eye of the beholder to ponder them. Suddenly the case tips to one side, allowing the objects inside it to slide over. The regularity of this movement is of little comfort. Other furniture pieces are just as enigmatic, such as “Beutekunst” (2005), a table reminiscent of a Roman marble artefact which turns out to be a pornographic. This transformation of fascination into irritation, of orgiastic self-presentation into absurd puppetry, is what already characterised his “Tortenschlacht” (2000): 20 formally clad women and gentlemen approach round tables on which cream pies are artfully decorated, take the pies and begin to throw them at each other and the entire stage until they are completely exhausted. Koschkarow's works are fakes (even the materials) – but they do not fake emotion.
Alexej Koschkarow intends to develop a new presentation for the Kasseler Kunstvereinsheim.
Alexej Koschkarow, born in Minsk, Russia in 1972, studied art at the Akademie der bildenden Künste Düsseldorf. He lives and works in Berlin.
Curator: Bernhard Balkenhol
