Her royal heilness: Berlin show revisits the artist who turned the Queen into a Nazi
The late Christoph Schlingensief was one of German art’s great provocateurs. Can his B-Movie horror aesthetics still shock us into thinking anew about media power, colonialism, and the far right?
TL;DR
- The exhibition 'It’s Not My Problem Anymore, Deal With Your Own Shit' at the Gropius Bau revisits the work of German artist Christoph Schlingensief.
- A centerpiece of the exhibition is Schlingensief's 2006 play 'Kaprow City,' which used controversial imagery involving Diana, Princess of Wales, to explore media iconization and societal absurdity.
- The play 'Kaprow City' included scenes with a Hitler salute, re-enactments of Diana's fatal crash, and depictions involving individuals with Down's syndrome and Camilla Parker Bowles.
- Schlingensief's other works, such as 'The African Twin Towers' dealing with colonial genocide in Namibia and 'Ausländer Raus! Schlingensiefs Container' critiquing asylum policies, are also featured.
- The exhibition highlights the continued relevance of Schlingensief's confrontational art in addressing issues of media power, colonialism, and the rise of the far right.
- Schlingensief's widow, Aino Laberenz, manages his estate and curated the exhibition, noting the fascination with Diana's myth in his work.
- The artist was influenced by filmmakers like Rainer Werner Fassbinder and often blurred the lines between art, politics, and spectacle.