CHRISTIAN JANKOWSKI

EXHIBITION
November 27, 2004 - January 2, 2005
Kunstmuseum Bonn
Curator: Georg Elben, Videonale Bonn **

Since his studies at the Hamburg art academy, Christian Jankowski has been working with visual entertainment media. He became famous after his spectacular contribution to the Biennale in Venice, "Telemistica". With his elementary language skills, the artist called the Italian television in order to ask about his success at that prestigious, large-scale exhibition. The helpless attempt of the TV-predictor to comment on the artist´s future was exhilarating and illuminating. The topic surely does not come up in a broadcast very often.

The core of the exhibition in art museum Bonn is the karaoke bar with the title "The day we met" (2003). It is located in the centre of the upper floor. The visitors were able to choose their favourite song from thousands of musical pieces and sing it live on a small stage. The singing was conducted with the appropriate original music, which was accompanied by video images and texts from the songs. In the video clips Christian Jankowski and a professional Korean actress play the main role without having practiced beforehand. Short and atmospheric episodes show how this unequal couple spends its time on a beach while singing or conversing calmly. The Korean film production companies in karaoke bars worldwide will then adopt the films.

The Music video "No one better than you" (2004), which was produced for a Spanish cult band Fangoria, is based on the idea of role reversal. The audience hear the redheaded Fangoria singer Alaska, who has been famous in Spain since the 80ies (like Nina Hagen in Germany). Yet they see a blond singer Sanchez, who is a star in mainstream Pop in Spain and Latin America. Both of the stars melt into one art figure and appear to the viewer of the video as a kind of a meta-icon. In order to be able to experience the sound-image combination, the spectator should know both of the musicians well. The knowledge about the swap turns this very aesthetic music clip into a virtual philosophic event.

Further works are: "ABBA in der Freiheit" ("ABBA in freedom") (1992); a performance with two ABBA-revival-bands and "Lets get physical / digital" (1993); a re-enacted Internet chat between Christian Jankowski and his former girlfriend Una. The actors were casted via mail in Sweden.