Press information Larry Clark 26.5.–12.8.2012 Oranienburger Str. 35/36 . 10117 Berlin . Täglich 11–20 Uhr 10/ermäßigt 5 Euro . Tel 030 28 44 41 60 . www.co-berlin.com © Larry Clark, detail from the collage I want a baby before u die, 2010 . Courtesy of Luhring Augustine, New York / Simon Lee Gallery, London . Design www.naroska.de Larry Clark Adolescent beauty, sexuality and drug-induced action – Larry Clark radically and realistically documents the everyday life of US teenagers, transgressing bourgeois moral concepts. From the drug scene in his hometown of Tulsa in the early 1960s to contemporary skaters in Los Angeles his works capture extremely intimate moments. The authenticity of Clarke’s images expose the consequences of a dysfunctional society and question the social responsibility and moral stance of its members. The revolutionary and unique aspect of his photographs is – to this day – the closeness and intimacy between him and the documented persons and situations. As opposed to a classical photo-journalist who views an unfamiliar world from the outside, Larry Clark does not only take an interest in the life of his protagonists. Far removed from any form of voyeurism, he himself is a fundamental part of the scene he photographs. It seems as if he has a familiarity with the persons portrayed rather than just observing them. Without Larry Clark, photography would not have freed itself from the constraints of objectivity. Hardly any other photographer has ever achieved the same degree of intensi- ty with which he immerses himself in his subject. It is here that the artist revives his own youth – each time with new protagonists. Larry Clark uses a direct visual language that is both touching and disturbing and creates a fascinating dynamic between classical pictorial composition and a special choice of themes. His work focuses on the experience of a completely uninhibited sexuality. By exposure it, the artist never denounces or accuses but allows the viewers to make their own judgement. C/O Berlin will present for the first time in Germany approx. 200 works of Larry Clark. In addition to his series “Teenage Lust” and “Los Angeles”, as well as videos, the main focus of the monographic exhibition is on collages, in which the artist combines found objects. In a similar way to a film or photo series, new associations and implications are created by supplementing the collages with newspaper cuttings, letters, posters and other objects. C/O Berlin will issue an exclusive publication on the occasion of the exhibition. Individual art works in this exhibition might offend your moral sensibilities. Young persons under 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Larry Clark C/O Berlin . Oranienburger Straße 35/36 . 10117 Berlin-Mitte . Telefon +49.30.28 44 41 60 . Telefax +49.30.28 44 41 619 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.com Informationen and Dates Exhibition May 26 to August 12, 2012 Opening Friday, May 25, 2012 . 7 pm Press tour Friday, May 25, 2012 . 11 am Opening hours daily . 11 am to 8 pm Admission10 Euros . reduced 5 Euros Organizer C/O Berlin International Forum For Visual Dialogues Location C/O Berlin im Postfuhramt Oranienburger Straße 35/36 . 10117 Berlin Press contact Mirko Nowak Phone 030.28 44 41 641 . [email protected] Auguststraße 5a . 10117 Berlin www.co-berlin.com Media partner Larry Clark C/O Berlin . Oranienburger Straße 35/36 . 10117 Berlin-Mitte . Telefon +49.30.28 44 41 60 . Telefax +49.30.28 44 41 619 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.com Press images 01 02 03 04 01 02 03 04 05 06 05 06 07 08 09 10 Larry Clark C/O Berlin . Oranienburger Straße 35/36 . 10117 Berlin-Mitte . Telefon +49.30.28 44 41 60 . Telefax +49.30.28 44 41 619 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.com 11 12 13 14 01 15 16 17 Larry Clark C/O Berlin . Oranienburger Straße 35/36 . 10117 Berlin-Mitte . Telefon +49.30.28 44 41 60 . Telefax +49.30.28 44 41 619 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.com 18 19 20 Larry Clark C/O Berlin . Oranienburger Straße 35/36 . 10117 Berlin-Mitte . Telefon +49.30.28 44 41 60 . Telefax +49.30.28 44 41 619 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.com 21 24 22 23 01 Untitled, 1971 02 Untitled, 1971 03 Untitled, 1971 04 Dead 1970, 1968 05 Acid Lower East Side, 1968 06 Brother and Sister, 1973 07 The Girl Next Door, 1969 08 Untitled, 1979 09 Untitled, 1972 10 Jack & Lynn Johnson, Oklahoma City, 1973 11 Untitled, 1984 12 Jonathan Velasquez, 2004 13 Jonathan Velasquez, 2003 14 Jonathan Velasquez, 2003 15 Jonathan Velasquez & Tiffany Limos, 2003 16 Jonathan Velasquez, 2004 17 Untitled (moral inventory), 1989 18 Untitled, 1989 19 Untitled, 1989 20 Knoxville I, 2011 21 I want a baby before u die, 2010 22 I want a baby before u die (Detail), 2010 23 Cuba, 2011 24 Untitled, 1990 All Images © Courtesy of Larry Clark . Luhring Augustine, New York . Simon Lee Gallery, London Print media can publish up to three images, online media only after permission. The images may only be used once and during the exhibition. The images may not be modified, cut nor otherwise be altered. The correct titles must always be mentioned. C/O Berlin, Larry Clark and the exhibition have to be mentioned in case of publication. You can order the press images at Mirko Nowak under [email protected] . 030.284 44 16 41 Larry Clark C/O Berlin . Oranienburger Straße 35/36 . 10117 Berlin-Mitte . Telefon +49.30.28 44 41 60 . Telefax +49.30.28 44 41 619 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.com Biografie Larry Clark, born in 1943 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is one of the most important US photographers. He gained his first experience of photography during his schooldays when he helped his mother portrait children. Between 1961 and 1963 he completed his studies in photography at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From 1964 to 1966 he was a soldier in the Vietnam War. From the beginning of the 1960s he documented the life of his friends in Oklahoma. He published the subsequent photographs, which received worldwide acclaim, in 1971 with the title “Tulsa”. In the next series, “Teenage Lust” from 1983, he once again focused on the theme of sex, drugs and violence among teenagers. Following this, Larry Clark continued to photograph teenagers, however in the less documentary form of portraits – the series “The Perfect Childhood” (1989-1992) testifies to this creative period. Since the 1990s he has produced films such as “Kids” (1995), “Another Day in Paradise” (1999), “Bully” (2001), “Ken Park” (2002) and “Destricted” (2006). His work has been exhibited in institutions worldwide, including the P.S.1 / MoMA in New York, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Photographers’ Gallery in London, the International Center of Photogra- phy in New York and Musée d´Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Larry Clark lives and works in New York. Larry Clark C/O Berlin . Oranienburger Straße 35/36 . 10117 Berlin-Mitte . Telefon +49.30.28 44 41 60 . Telefax +49.30.28 44 41 619 . [email protected] . www.co-berlin.com Media Transformer By Felix Hoffmann . Curator C/O Berlin 1. Is the medium the message? In 1967 Marshall McLuhan published the book The Medium is the Message. After first challenging the medium, he advocates its relevance as a message carrier: it is not the respective “content” and the practicality of the media that is decisive but rather the choice of media also influences and shapes the way human beings live together: in the 20th century, records prompted a completely new form of social cooperation – in a very different way to the live concerts, which could not be recorded until the beginning of the 20th century. The fact there is no longer a need for physical sound storage mediums in the 21st century has allowed music to become a cons- tantly available cultural commodity that can be distributed without a carrier medium. Each thing – even the diamond stylus, which traces the grooves of the round, black vinyl – is its own posit, which is not structured according to the content but according to the type of media: a record differs from an mp3-player not only because the music is stored and distributed in a different way but also above all because of the mobile aspect. In photography, new developments, pleasure in experimentation and innovation have always been communicated in the form of books. The history of the medium of photography in the past 90 years makes it evident that books not only serve to illustrate, or contribute to the dissemination of a photographic work, but represent an autonomous me- dium. The way in which pictures are sequenced to form a narrative allows an autonomous interpretation to develop between two covers of a book, creating new visual levels of meaning. 2. Larry Clark’ career also began very suddenly in 1971 when his first book of photographs, Tulsa, was published. In this book he compiled visual material from the period between 1963 and 1971. The portraits, snapshots, filmstrips and a few, brief sentences or comments create an unusually compact work, which made a huge impact on the art scene. The portrait-format book, with only 62-pages, was issued by the publishing house founded by Ralph Gibson, Lustrum Press. From the perspective of the participating viewer, it highlights a particular social group of youths and young adults, who had never been documented on photos in this way previously.