Over a period of more than five months, the display window artwork #Youbiquitous was developed by the multimedia artist Peter Kogler in collaboration with the curator Doris Krystof. The concept of the installation – intended for a highly conspicuous location, a display window at Breuninger’s on Düsseldorfer’s "Kö" (Königsallee) – changed a number of times. In the end, two young artists – Linnéa Schwarz and Sara Chaparro – joined the endeavor. Their performance – which has now lasted 2 1/2 weeks – brings additional complexity to the work. "It was not at all clear where things would lead," confessed Kogler – who was visibly enthused about the location and the team – on the evening of the opening, which took place in a ceremonious atmosphere, surrounded by the store’s exclusive accessories and cosmetic articles.

On the occasion of the display window project and the inauguration of the artist’s room by Peter Kogler, on view at the same time at the K21, #32 met with the artist for an exchange.

3 questions for Peter Kogler – by Alissa Krusch

#32: You often work at locations within public space, for example in train stations or at bus stops. Also found in your oeuvre are façade designs, stage sets, and a skate park. What makes the location of the display window special?

Peter Kogler: In contrast to my artist’s room at the K21, which is a museum work in an art context, the display window occupies a highly exposed location. Another distinction is the public. When you exhibit in the city, the work needs to have a certain immediacy. The museum is familiar, the city is astonishing.

#32: In your work #Youbiquitous, created for the Breuninger display window, passersby are addressed directly by the artistic duo consisting of Linnéa Schwarz and Sara Chaparro. What awaits the stroller who lingers at the display window?

Peter Kogler: These two artists are using the display window as a studio space. For passersby, the view is probably irritating because what they're seeing is not a display window, but instead a peculiar office situation: large display screens by means of which the artists communicate publicly.

It was a deliberate decision to incorporate social media, to emphasize it in this work. Although I myself don't post anything, I'm interested in the new media as a phenomenon.

#32: It seems striking that viewers of the work evidently enjoy photographing themselves in it. Already on the first weekend, when your artist’s room opened at the K21, we were able to follow events on Instagram. How do you assess this form of interaction with your work?

Peter Kogler: I have worked with computers since 1984. I started with the first Macintosh, we found that through the graphic screen, we were able to use the computer very intuitively. It is clear that something fundamental has changed as a result.

In 1992, I exhibited at the Documenta, a large installation with the figure of an ant. I reproduced a single ant hundreds of times. At the time, the work was reproduced in all of the print media. Here we find an aspect of monumentality that emerges through reproduction.

Interestingly, this is true of many of my works, with ants, tubes, networks, brains. We live in information systems and have to deal with them. I really believe the media have had a general influence on my work – and doubtless, it will continue to change through them.

During their remarks at the opening, Peter Kogler and Doris Krystof spoke about the title of the display window installation. Alongside the allusion to Youtube and to the egocentric structures of the Internet, the neologism "Youbiquitous" contains the word “ubiquitous,” i.e. "omnipresent" or "area-wide" – a reference that brings us in a felicitous way back to Kogler’s labyrinthine and often repetitive images.

The installation #Youbiquitous will be on view at Breuninger in Düsseldorf from April 21 until May 6, 2017. The window display performances by the artists can be followed online at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as via livestream under the hashtag #Youbiquitous. Viewers can establish contact with them, either digitally or on location.

#Youbiquitous

On view beginning in mid-April at the K21 is Peter Kogler’s artist’s room "Untitled" (2016) in the first upper level of the Ständehaus. The installation, consisting of mirrors and monitors, generates kaleidoscopic, abstract images which call conventional spatial experience into question.