The focus of the ex­hi­bi­tion was a floor col­lage com­pris­ing more than 1,000 pho­to­graphs cre­ated by Martin Kippenberger (1953 — 1997) for the Berlin studio of fash­ion de­sign­er Claudia Skoda. Having served as a cat­walk for fash­ion shows as of 1976, the in­stal­la­tion has plenty of stories to tell about life and work, art and fash­ion, love and music. While working in Claudia Skoda’s studio gave Kippenberger access to the Berlin art scene, it was also an op­por­tu­ni­ty to test and es­tab­lish pho­to­graphy as the es­sen­tial tool for his early works. Even the most triv­i­al of motifs, even the most ad­ven­tur­ous detail was worth a pic­ture.

For the first time, the ex­hi­bi­tion at the Kunsthalle HGN drew at­ten­tion to the im­por­tant role of pho­to­graphy in Kippenberger’s early work. In ad­di­tion to the floor col­lage, it fea­tured other pho­to­graphic series fea­tur­ing Claudia Skoda as well as pho­to­copies, slide shows and films by and about Martin Kippenberger never ex­hib­ited before. Part of the ex­hi­bi­tion space was mod­eled on the Berlin “Paris Bar” where Kippenberger bar­tered his works of art for food and drinks. The ver­nis­sage cul­mi­nated in a fash­ion show across the floor col­lage high­light­ing items from Claudia Skoda’s col­lec­tions from the 1970s to today.