ART-PRESENTATION: Christoph Schlingensief-Message In A Bottle

Christoph Schlingensief was one of the leading German-speaking artists of his time. He eliminated the borders between theater, film, television, literature, and visual arts with his politically subversive and often extreme happenings and projects. His death in 2010 left an artistic void that is still felt today, even outside of the German-speaking world.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: JSC Archive

The exhibition “Message In A Bottle” will, for the first time, bring together Christoph Schlingensief’s works from the Julia Stoschek Collection. The photo prints, videos, and mixed-media installations on display were created between 2003 and 2008. These works are fragments from Schlingensief’s performances and stagings that Julia Stoschek supported as a patron. The exhibition invites visitors to engage in an in-depth examination of Schlingensief’s art and makes it possible to experience the complex interdependencies of the works. Christoph Schlingensief and Julia Stoschek had a long and close friendship that was accompanied by a lively exchange concerning his projects. They met in 2003 for the first time. One year later Stoschek attended rehearsals for the Bayreuth Festival with Schlingensief, who was staging the opera Parsifal. The collector later funded a number of his projects, including the long-term project “The Animatograph” (2005–07), a revolving stage construction that simultaneously provided a surface for action and projections. Variations of this project were shown at venues including Reykjavík, Iceland; Lüderitz, Namibia; and Neuhardenberg, Germany amongst others. The immersive installation consisted of the videos “I want to destroy” (2005) and “Affenführer” (2005) and the photographs “Affenbilder” (2005). Stoschek’s support of the happening “Diana II—What Happened to Allan Kaprow?” (2006) demonstrates that her backing of Schlingensief’s work was also based on idealistic support. The artist had originally planned a performance that was to take place during Frieze Art Fair in London. It was conceived as a continuation of the immersive multimedia installation “Kaprow City” (2006). However, the performance was prevented due to the provocative nature of the subject, the death of the Lady Diana in a car accident—particularly provocative in combination with Schlingensief’s B-horror movie aesthetics. At that point he changed the concept of  “Diana II—What Happened to Allan Kaprow?” with the aid of a portable altar taken from Catholic liturgy, Schlingensief visited sites around London that were associated with the Princess of Wales and Allan Kaprow, one of the pioneers of performance art. When funds ran low due to the project’s exclusion from the official part of the fair and belief in the project also waned, Julia Stoschek was able to help. The mysterious work “Message in a Bottle” (2008) was a present from Christoph Schlingensief to Julia Stoschek in conjunction with the second major presentation of her collection in 2008. The object consists of a rough wooden frame with two Plexiglas panels screwed onto it, between which there is a small package. Addressed to Schlingensief and bearing a canceled stamp, the package is reminiscent of Conceptual Art and Mail Art of the 1960s. Schlingensief was making reference to the approach of the Fluxus movement, which elevates everyday items to art objects imbued with an aura of mystery. The story of the journey taken by this object, its contents, and the frame is clearly inherent in the art object. However, it cannot be grasped in concrete terms. It remains uncertain what information is actually contained in the message in the bottle. To find out more, the object would have to be broken open and destroyed. The artist and the collector engage in a direct relationship with each other that depends on mutual agreement on rules concerning the handling of art in general, making sure the message remains protected by its frame. On a personal level, it is about trust—accepting that things are left unsaid.

Photo: Christoph Schlingensief, Message in a Bottle, 2008, object; wooden frame, Plexiglas, Super 8mm film inverse positive in envelope, addressed, franked and stamped. Photo: Simon Vogel. Courtesy of the Estate of Christoph Schlingensief.

Info: Julia Stoschek Collection, Schanzenstrasse 54, Düsseldorf, Duration: 25/4-9/12/2021, Days & Hours: Sun 11:00-18:00, www.jsc.art