Thomas Demand (b. 1964)

Badezimmer (Beau Rivage)

Details

Thomas Demand (b. 1964)
Badezimmer (Beau Rivage)
signed and dated 'Thomas Demand 1997' (on the reverse)
chromogenic print on photographic paper and Diasec
63 x 48 in. (160 x 122 cm.)
Executed in 1997.

Provenance

Victoria Miro, London

Literature

H.P. Von Däniken, "Die ganze Welt ist bloss aus Pappe", Tages-Anzeiger, April 4, 1998 (illustrated)
V.I. Wiensowski, "Das Bild vom Bild vom Bild", Spiegel Kultur extra, March 1998, p. 12 (illustrated) A. Pühringer, Noëma Artjournal, no. 47, April/May 1998
V.H. Meister, "Die Attrappen als Wirklichkeit", Westdeutsche Zeitung, August 19, 1998
J. Buddenberg, "Extreme Bezüge", Montag, August 24, 1998 (illustrated)
M. Schwendener, "THOMAS DEMAND Foggy Intersection of Photography And Truth", Flash Art, October 2000, p. 62 (illustrated)
F. Bonami, F. Quintin and R. Durand, Thomas Demand, Paris, 2000, p. 85 (illustrated)

Exhibited

Kunsthalle Zürich; and Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Thomas Demand, March-September 1998

Sale room notice

The correct title for this work is Badezimmer (Beau Rivage).

Lot Essay

Demand's blue-tiled bathroom with its clean, white tub, shower curtain and bathmat reveal nothing of the of the highly publicized death that took place in this clinical setting. Uwe Barschel was a German politican, a former chief minister of Schlewig Holstein, West Germany's nothernmost state. Barschel was found fully clothed in the bathtub of his hotel room in Geneva on October 12, 1987. The autopsy revealed the existence of sleeping pills, although no evidence was found in the hotel room to support this finding. Barschel had been asked to leave his political position a month before his death, the popular rumor in Germany was that he was assassinated.

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