With a tongue-in-cheek approach, Jonathan Monk humorously combines Appropriation Art with autobiographical elements. Referring to earlier exhibition and book projects, Monk is showing paper work conceived especially for einBuch.haus, which will be realized both as a wall installation and as an artist’s book. In this project, Jonathan Monk refers to the publication OLD VIENNA POSTERS by Martin Kippenberger, published by the Grazer Kunstverein in 1992. Kippenberger’s book is composed of a poster board divided into A4 pages, originally on view in Graz, depicting the space of a Viennese bar with advertising posters.

For the artists’ book and exhibition OLD BERLIN POSTERS, Monk uses his own collection of German movie posters as a direct reference to Kippenberger’s series Dear Painter, Paint Me (1981). For the series, Kippenberger had photographs painted by a then-unknown movie poster painter named Werner. Monk took this as an opportunity to visit a movie poster gallery in Berlin and collect all the movie posters from the period 1979-1981 that were available there at that moment. These 18 posters purchased by Monk could in turn also have been painted by Werner for Berlin cinemas, and are thus indirectly connected to Kippenberger’s project. Monk appropriates Kippenberger’s concept and uses the posters to produce a book and show a room-sized wall installation at einBuch.haus.

Thus, Jonathan Monk’s performative exploration presents an exciting continuation for the exhibition concept “A Book in the Form of an Exhibition” at einBuch.haus.

Jonathan Monk (*1969, Leicester, lives and works in Berlin.)