Thomas Kilpper
colder than ice
The difficult work of encapsulate a reality seems
to be a very easy task for some artists. Thomas Kilpper is one of
these artists. In a period of three months he produce a
huge (300 qm) woodcut called don´t look backusing
an indoor basketball court floor as platform. This basketball court
is located in the former US military base Camp King in
Oberursel, Germany.
This specific site chosen for the execution of this
work encludes some important historic
facts:
during the WW II it was the interrogation center of
the Third Reich Luftwaffe ( DULAG Luft ). Which kept allies pilots
prisoners as well. After the war the same site was used by the
American Military Force to interrogate several important Nazi
generals, scientists and politicians. Subsequent the operation
paperclip was executed.
One purpose of the operation paperclip was to
use the Nazi military organization 'Fremde Heere Ost' (National
Socialist foreigner secret service, till 1945) as a partner by the
CIA after the war to help the denazification of Germany. But also was the oportunity to generate brain power for
important american projects like the
Apollo 11and others. The
artist searched the archives of the city of Oberusel to be able
to create this assemble of images carved in the basketball court
floor. The huge prints that came out of this work where displayed
above the woodcut in the wall all around the court and even in the
one made from the entire work was displayed in the Oberusel Cityhall
facade.
The reality which killper encapsulated was a very
personal, social and political one. It was not only the
artists confrontation with his own past, shown in this woodcut
work, but of a entire nation, in this case, Germany.
As a son of an officer in the National Socialist Army
and been himself a militant at a left wing resistant group.
Kilpper converted these two very strong experiences into a third one
where past and present are confronted, form and content joine and
seriousness and humor givefuture some prespective.
This confrontation and his strong will to
produce this art work led the artist into make a stunning
oeuvre which retains Kilppers art praxis and shows how art can really
of intervene in a mental-social reality.
Copyright©1998 Thomas Kilpper
The installation colder than icewhich will be presented in the space of the former GOOP-Galerie, in Frankfurt on Main, will show prints made from the work don´t look back and a video, showing some parts of the related work. The video will be shown incidentally at the window of the space during the whole period of the exhibition.
Thomas Kilpper is a Frankfurt based artist which
just finished his BA in arts in the Stadel Art Institut.
read Martin Pesch (german,
englisch) on Thomas Kilpper´s don´t look back
Zur Eroeffnung am Dienstag,
15. 12. 98, um
19.30 Uhr
sind Sie und Ihre Freunde herzlich eingeladen.
Ausstellung 16. 12. bis 31. 12.
1998
Ausstellungsraum (ehemals GOOP-Galerie)
Oppenheimerstr. 34a
60594 Frankfurt / M
geoffnet Mittwochs und Samstags
16°° - 19°° Uhr
und nach telefonischer Vereinbarung
069 - 23 55 37 bzw. 54 85 618
We thank Anna Fasold and Martin Bullinger for their support on this project.
curated by Saul Judd