Taking Leave (Abschied) Print

Trees covered with letters from the Everafter, a hotel filled with stories of strange guests who don´t really fit each other, a space filled with ticking watches as a time tunnel, a coffin surrounded by obituaries accumulated in years, a meadow made from thousands of cable ties, a cupboard full of strange objects from the world of money, Roman bricks in the room of Peter Pan – Klemens Kühn always finds unexpectedly poetic pictures for everyday subjects and stories. In his function as a stage designer in the theatre or as an exhibition designer – his poetical rooms carry away the visitors. He playfully approaches serious topics with a lot of love for details and the ability to make people experience things physically as well as mentally. Never losing connection to the whole story, he succeeds in creating places where time stands still for a moment. With a lot of respect for the charm of the small everyday things his installations invite people to participate, to touch and be touched by what they see and hear. Drawers to open and close, letters to keep on writing, phones that tell authentic stories – his rooms seduce the visitor to investigate the world again with all his or her senses, as well as children do. The way we all did when we were younger and then forgot, sadly. What we keep from the visit of one of his exhibitions – whether the subject death, or the subject money, or time, or globalisation – a physical notion to have experienced something new - and a mind full of pictures. (J.Pf. 2012)