Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018
Photo: Arno Declair, 2018 
 

Jeff Koons

by Rainald Goetz
Direction: Lilja Rupprecht
Studio

09/30/2019, 20.30–22.30

Inflated plastic rabbits and flowers in gaudy colours; old vacuum cleaners in illuminated Perspex boxes; garish retro advertising posters: Jeff Koons is the trendiest visual artist of the eighties. His life has exactly the same glossy glamour as his works, full of shiny surfaces, lunacy and delusions of grandeur. Koons finds fulfilment in his marriage with the porn-star politician Cicciolina and they have a son together. But then, in the nineties, everything starts to go awry − his art sells at overly inflated prices, he is criticised for its apolitical nature, he no longer belongs to the avant-garde and is instead dismissed as a massproducer of soulless, easily reproduced trash. His relationship also starts to crumble and ends in a bitter divorce and a court battle over the custody of their child. The text »Jeff Koons« is an experiment. It begins with the third act, jumps back to the first and ends with the seventh. The form constantly changes with snippets of dialogue, monologues, descriptions, poetry and language itself becoming the plot. Jeff Koons as a person does not appear in »Jeff Koons« but his spirit hovers over the piece which is about grasping at desire, true love and great art, about trying and failing, about throwing yourself into life.

»Jeff Koons« is Lilja Rupprecht’s first show at the Schaubühne.

Imagefilm for »Jeff Koons« with music by Romain Frequency

Direction: Lilja Rupprecht
Set and Costume Design: Annelies Vanlaere
Video: Moritz Grewenig
Music: Romain Frequency
Dramaturgy: Maja Zade
Duration: ca. 120 minutes

Premiered on 7 June 2018