Participating artists:Deniz Ilhan, Mathilda Köhler, Lucia Graf, Johanna Dembinski
Period (opening hours):Summer party and opening: 24 July from 3.00 pm until late
Venue:Klub Portitz
Wodanstr. 18B
04349 Leipzig
“That is what people call those who see themselves.” With this footnote, Jean Paul coined a word in 1796 that has remained untranslated to this day: Doppelgänger. It stems from a culture that always regarded a strange likeness as a threat.
In German mythology, the Doppelgänger was regarded as a bad omen, a harbinger of illness and death. Some believed the spirit sought to offer advice; others thought it sought to instil evil thoughts. To this day, film and television draw almost exclusively on this second interpretation: as a threat, as an adversary.
However, the relationship with one’s own double was not always quite so threatening. In Rome, for example, upon the death of Emperor Septimius Severus in 211 AD, a likeness was fashioned in his image, dressed in his robes and laid upon his bed. For almost seven days, the court re-enacted his death, even though the emperor had long since passed away. The doppelgänger assumed the final public role of his original, for a human being can die. An institution cannot.
What the doppelgänger signifies today remains just as multifaceted. The exhibition “Doppelgänger” at Klub Portitz presents four artistic interpretations of this motif: digital images by Deniz Ilhan, oil paintings by Mathilda Köhler, ceramic objects from Lucia Graf’s series ‘Sleepy Shells’, and a selection from Johanna Dembinski’s research project ‘The Catfish in Bed’ on superstitions and myths surrounding shadows, likenesses and omens.
Text: Lucas Loh
