www.swo.de/BertKlag/ Bert E A Klag The Road is The Destination Four Propositions Regarding Bert E A Klag It was an exhausting evening. A vernissage, 90 minutes long, no wine, neither red nor white, and not even a beer nearby. Only water, sparkling and still, and rolls, just plain rolls, freshly baked though. The fine selection and the apparently high price of the mineral water showed that the scarcity of the service was not for economic but much rather for political reasons -- a provocation?! The provocation’s title was "Laura Himmelreich," a performance by German artist Bert E.A. Klag, taking place in his studio in the middle of Karlsruhe's industrial harbor. Klag's studio overlooking the Rhine harbor offers quite a unique atmosphere, especially during the evening hours, when the sun has not yet fully set, and it is not yet dark outside, and the light in the harbor is unusual - it is beautiful. "People from Karlsruhe do not realize that they are living in a city with a harbor," I was once told by Bert E.A. Klag, making myself -- having moved here already ten years ago -- a case in point. "Have I become the tent? If so, then from now on this cloned tent will be nomading the world" It is the harbor that is the focal point of Klag's latest work, a work entitled "Laura Himmelreich." The fictitious character Laura (her family name means "kingdom of heaven"), one of Europe's currently nine million unemployed women, used to work here in the harbor, doing secretarial work for a timber business until it went bankrupt. Having lost her job, Laura also lost her identity which according to her (or her creator) had only been defined by and though her employment. click to continue...