John Bock: The Greased Bendsteering… – Lecture / Fashion Show at HKW Berlin

German artist John Bock’s event at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin was announced as a lecture, bearing a rather long title – and turned out to be an entertaining fashion show with weird vogue, underground action and some animals that were not injured.

John Bock’s show Die abgeschmierte Knicklenkung im Gepäck verheddert sich im weissen Hemd (The greased bendsteering in the luggage gets tangled up with the white shirt) is described by the organizers as “a GlitterMotterRun of Quasi Me’s. Wrappings bend into analytical diagrams. The animalistic Existo sprays lubing-sparks into the Recipient-Cuboid. Turnaroundround round around from beginning over Now-Time to the end of Later-Time with have hair nice.”

The same in German: “Einen GlidderModderlauf der Quasi-Me’s. Umhüllungen knicken sich zu analytischen Diagrammen. Der Animalische Existo sprüht Schmierfunken in den Rezipientenquader. Drehrumdrum um herum von Anfang über Jetzt-Zeit zum Ende der Später-Zeit. Mit hab Haare schön.”

You don’t understand a thing? Don’t complain. As art aficionado you should be used to cryptical catalog texts and press releases. But if you know what it means, please send an equally unobscured explanation / translation of it to the VernissageTV HQ. We promise to publish it. Even if it’s in the Libyan dialect Muammar Gadafi uses.

The lecture itself was entertaining indeed. Although some art professionals complained about being bored by the show. Quote: “Real fashion shows are far more exciting and too much fashion, too little John Bock”. Well, I’m not a frequent guest at Karl’s or Tom’s shows, so I wasn’t bored. That’s a lot for me because one of the reasons I love contemporary art is that I’m not forced to wait for the concert to be over when I enter a gallery. But yes, there was a little too much fashion and too little John Bock, and as my friend Philippe is Dada in text and person, I wasn’t too much impressed by the KnicklenkungDadaBlaba either. Conclusion: The lecture / fashion show was a pleasant surprise, and the cotton swabs, with which I identify him, had also their appearance.

John Bock was suggested by Rirkrit Tiravanija for The Spirit of the Haus, the events celebrating the 20th birthday of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin. His fashion show has been performed on September 25 and 26, 2009. VernissageTV filmed the performance on September 26, 2009.

Models: Tatjana Axt, Eva Gärtner, Francesco Pillino, Sebastian Gottschalk, Luen Wong, Max Coly, Lucy Mullican, Caroline Adam, Sonja Klinge, Maria Romero, Charleen Richter, Hannah Früh, Anna Sartison, Caroine Gerbeckx.

[Review by Grégoire Didier].

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Posted in: art, Berlin, best of, design, no comment, VernissageTV