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Thomas Demand Klause, 2006
Klause / Tavern I: 275 x 170 cm
Klause / Tavern II: 178 x 244 cm
Klause / Tavern III: 199 x 258 cm
Klause / Tavern IV: 103 x 68 cm
Klause / Tavern V: 197 x 137 cm
Invited in 2006 by the Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt to create a work in dialogue with Max Beckmann’s recently rediscovered 1941-42 series of lithographs Apocalypse, Thomas Demand produced the five-part Klause. The images depict views of the exterior and the interior of a small-town tavern where a child had been killed. Pictures of the bar (now turned into a Pizzeria) had circulated widely in the German press. Due to the character of the crime no images of the persons involved could be published, and thus the site of it became a surrogate image that was widely disseminated by the media. This building serves as a starting point for Demand’s constructed images: two outdoor views depict the façade, partly covered by ivy, and the barricaded entrance. Inside one is faced with certain details like a dried-out plant or a coffee machine. Some of the photographs are directly linked to one another creating a sense of the location’s spatial layout: in the back of the kitchen, for example, one can see the door leading to the yellow storage room, that forms the setting of another image.