iNeue NationalgalerieTiergarten
Christoph Schlingensief. Deutschlandsuche ’99
A room devoted to Christoph Schlingensief, centred on Deutschland versenken (1999), his action of 'sinking Germany' in New York.
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Germany refuses to sink. In the film, a hard-shell suitcase of German souvenirs flies over a ship's rail into the Hudson as the press cheers, and keeps bobbing on the waves. Inside, Schlingensief tells a reporter, are a beer stein, a sanitary towel and the Do Not Disturb sign from a Chemnitz hotel.
That action, Deutschland versenken, staged on 9 November 1999, gets its own room inside the collection display Extreme Tension. The central film runs 1 minute 28 seconds. Around it are more films, TV interviews (one with Alexander Kluge) and his columns for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. You watch a journalist ask why he's dressed as an Orthodox rabbi, and he explains the sidelocks are props and his shoes are wrong for the part.
In nd, Dorte Lena Eilers wrote that the interviews show how helpless the press was and how bold he was. Art in Berlin warns it takes a few minutes to find your footing. The museum is open until 20:00 on Thursdays and closed Mondays.
Look for
Deutschland versenken (1999)
Look for the 88-second film, shot on 35mm, of Schlingensief holding a sign at Times Square, outside the Metropolitan Museum and the Goethe-Institut.
The suitcase going overboard
On the boat, Schlingensief refuses a reporter's request to open the suitcase, then it sails over the rail into the Hudson to cheers.
The rabbi interview
Asked whether his costume is provocative appropriation, he says no: his clothes plainly don't meet Orthodox codes, and the sidelocks just hang off his ears.
Good for
- An Hour Or Less
- Evening Visits
- Nerding Out
Skip if
You want things explained: Schlingensief answers every question with a new riddle, and the room leaves you to it.
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Image credits
8
- Christoph Schlingensief. Deutschlandsuche ’99Courtesy Filmgalerie 451, Estate Christoph Schlingensief, Berlin
- Rubens, Jordaens, van Dyck. Flemish Master DrawingsPhoto: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett / Jörg P. Anders
- Time Travel in the Old Tiergarten District© Bildarchiv Foto Marburg
- Daniel Chodowiecki, 1726–1801. Images of the Enlightenment in BerlinCourtesy of Gemäldegalerie
- Neue NationalgalerieEvgenii Salganik / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
- GemäldegalerieOursana / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- KunstgewerbemuseumMarsupium / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
- Gropius BauManfred Brückels / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0