Klaus vom Bruch
Year of birth, place
Role at the ZKM
- Artist of the Collection
Biography
Klaus vom Bruch was born in Cologne in 1952. He studied (1975-76) at the California Institute of Arts, Valencia under John Baldessari and (1976-79) in the Philosophy Faculty of the University of Cologne. Since 1992 he has been Professor of Media Arts at the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe. He lives in Cologne.
Klaus vom Bruch started his work almost exclusively with video. Between 1975 and 1985 he produced over twenty video tapes, many of them autobiographical in content. Formally, these are characterized by a collage-like superimposition of documentary photography, elements from television advertising spots and self-portraits. The principal concern in these works is the connection between the media and the power. Since the late 1980s, his installations has assumed a sculptural dimension. He has also started to incorporate radar technology in his work, opposing a sender (the video recorder) and a receiver (the monitor). Unusually, the information is transmitted not by cable, but through space, being picked up by antennae. Here technology does not remain merely the artist's medium of expression: it has itself become his subject.
| Individual exhibitions (selection) | |
| 1978 | Galerie Philomene Magers, Bonn |
| 1985 | Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Ghent |
| 1988 | »Radarraum«, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach |
| 1989 | Moderna Museet, Stockholm |
| 1990 | »Klaus vom Bruch, Video-Installationen 1986-1990«, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hannover |
| 1992 | »Klappluftschraube mit Spinner«, Galerie Dacić, Tübingen |
| 1993 | Galerie Desiré Feuerle, Köln; »Jam-Jam-Projekt«, Kunstverein, Cologne |
| 1994 | Galerie Eigen + Art, Berlin and Leipzig |
| 1995 | »Artaud spricht vor den Soldaten«, Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn |
| 1996 | »Zwei, drei neue Arbeiten«, Galerie Dörrie & Priess, Hamburg |
| 1997 | »Der Augenzeuge«, Erzbischöfliches Diözesanmuseum, Cologne; »Cuba Cuba Cuba«, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover; »BerlinProject« (with Thomas Struth), Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin |
| Group exhibitions (selection) | |
| 1974 | Studio Oppenheim, Cologne |
| 1980 | Biennale de Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris |
| 1982 | Biennale de Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; »Videokunst in Deutschland 1963-1982«, Kunstverein, Cologne, subsequently at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, and at venues in Munich, Nuremberg and Berlin |
| 1984 | Biennale di Venezia, Venice; »von hier aus«, Messegelände, Düsseldorf |
| 1986 | »Dorothea von Stetten-Kunstpreis«, Städtisches Kunstmuseum, Bonn; »A Distanced View«, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York |
| 1988 | documenta VIII, Kassel |
| 1989 | »Video-Skulptur retrospektiv und aktuell 1963-89«, Kunstverein, Cologne, subsequently at Kongresshalle Berlin, Kunsthaus Zürich |
| 1991 | »MultiMediale 2«, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe |
| 1992 | Galerie Eigen + Art, Berlin |
| 1994 | »Minima Media«, Medienbiennale Leipzig |
| 1996 | 3. Biennale de Lyon, Lyon; »Total«, Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; »Concealed/Revealed«, Site, Santa Fe |
| 1997 | »Deutschlandbilder«, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin |
[David Richardt, 1997]