Martin Kippenberger: The Bermuda Triangle: Syros, Paris Bar, and Dawson City

by Carol Eckman, David Nolan, Martin Kippenberger (Artist)

Martin Kippenberger's trickster aesthetic was aided and abetted by the owners of his famed Berlin hangout, the Paris Bar. One proprietor, Michael Würthle, provided Kippenberger with a place to make art at his family's house on the island of Syros, Greece; the other, Reinald Nohal, owned a summer retreat in Canada's Yukon Territory, which the artist visited. In those two remote locations, Kippenberger conceived his worldwide subway network, Metro-Net , and built the first two entrances, should anyone decide to do the rest of the underground excavation and construction. The Bermuda Triangle documents in detail the planning and execution of this piece by the late high-art prankster, and reproduces the varied, accomplished, sometimes hilarious and devastatingly human drawings from the 80s and 90s, mostly on hotel stationery, from Würthle's collection. Its witty design is one Kippenberger would certainly have appreciated, its two volumes accompanied by a 'guerilla marketing kit' of two posters and an “I [heart] Kippenberger” bumper sticker, all contained in a cardboard box that converts to a display stand.

114 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2005