Performancelectureseries #3. The highly artificial worlds of the entertainment industry.
For the third performancelectureseries at Johann Konig German artist Claus Richter abducts the audience into the highly artificial worlds of the entertainment industry. Starting off from Michael Jackson's Neverland und George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch, Richter takes a trip to the toy industry's solacing shopping kingdoms, has a break at McDonald's and pays a visit to Ludwig II in Neuschwanstein. With an empathic as well as ironic impetus Richter interlinks filmic and photographic examples of cinematographic special-effects, diversion machineries and magic worlds. It all results in a humorous and partly eccentric story on escapism questioning its feasibility. With this performance lecture Claus Richter gives an insight into the references underlying his artistic work. As a fan, consumer and sceptic Richter devotes himself to the mass products of culture industry and the myths of popular culture. He appropriates their imagery and artefacts in order to render them in his installations, objects and videos. By doing so Richter traces society's emotional economies under the leitmotifs spectacle, yearning and melancholy.