Make Your Own Life: Artists In & Out of Cologne - September 14th, 2024

Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) at the University of Pennsylvania staged “Make Your Own Life: Artists In & Out of Cologne” from April 21 - July 31, 2006. The exhibition, curated by Bennett Simpson, looked at the mythic and art historical significance of Cologne, bringing together three generations of highly influential European and American artists:

Bernadette Corporation, Merlin Carpenter, Stephan Dillemuth, Michaela Eichwald, Filmgruppe West, Andrea Fraser, Kim Gordon, Gareth James, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Jutta Koether, Michael Krebber, Louise Lawler, Hans-Jörg Mayer*, Lucy McKenzie, Christian Philipp Muller, Nils Norman, Albert Oehlen, Stephen Prina, Josephine Pryde, Blake Rayne, Reena Spaulings, Josef Strau, Rosemarie Trockel, Cosima von Bonin, Charline von Heyl, Christopher Williams, and Christopher Wool.

98 pages
8.25 x 11.5 in.
Softcover
ISBN-10: 0884541088
*Mint, extremely rare

Includes an introduction by Simpson, an essay by Josef Strau, and roundtable excerpts from artists and curators Diedrich Diederichsen, Jutta Koether, Gregory Williams, Andrea Fraser, Gareth James, and Ingrid Schaffner.

“Make Your Own Life” explores one of the defining legacies of this time: the privileging of the artist's life and context as a basis for understanding artistic practice. How to make art in relation to a set of communities, histories, market conditions, and social attitudes was at the core of the Cologne scene. Fiercely debated, dramatized in exaggerated behavior, art works and exhibitions, the performance of an artistic persona contributed to Cologne’s aura as a city of extreme self-consciousness and audacity.” (ICA, 2006)