In his works, John Bock brings together live actions, drawings, sculptures, installations, film sets, and film projections to create a Gesamtkunstwerk. His spatial arrangements, which are characterized by material combinations, can become a place for live actions, which the artist calls “lectures”. His work is built on a darkly tinted humor, which expresses itself not least on a linguistic level by means of neologisms, repetitions, onomatopoeia, and surprising language combinations.

For Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, John Bock has developed a new project that intermeshes elements of installation, film, and performance in four different spaces. The pivotal work of the exhibition Im AntliTZ des SchädelapparaTZ is a 4.2-meter-high metal wedge hanging from the ceiling of the exhibition space – it serves as an action space for four dancers and one actor. The performative “lectures” taking place here as well as in two adjoining rooms and involving the five live actors can be seen on June 17, June 25, and June 28, 2019, at 7 pm respectively. They are also at the center of a film that will be shown at n.b.k. from June 25, 2019, onwards.

The rooms and performances refer to the lifestyle of the US terrorist and former professor of mathematics Theodore Kaczynski (* 1942, called „Unabomber“) and the Hanoverian serial killer Fritz Haarmann (* 1879 † 1925). In the “Leibraum” (body room), a second room level was installed using a grating floor, thus creating a gloomy-looking space which can only be looked at by the visitors from below. A slit silicone body is at the center, liquid dripping from its hair. The walls of the lower level are lined with metal plates. Through another opening one enters the “Stube” (parlor), where a claustrophobic scenario unfolds.