Karsten Bott

de 1960

Karsten Bott was born in Frankfurt am Main in 1960. From 1986 to 1991, he studied
at the Städelschule in Frankfurt/M. in Peter Kubelka's film class.
In 1988, Karsten Bott founded the Archive for Contemporary History.
Karsten Bott collects everything from fittings to toothbrushes, rolls of wallpaper, irons, tiles, pots, dildos, preserves, receipts, and chewed gum.
He archives the smaller items in his growing collection of everyday culture in thousands of numbered banana boxes. They are stored in groups of 28 on Euro pallets in a former factory near Hanau. For exhibitions, Karsten Bott sorts the objects from his archive into specially made display cases and shelves or into huge floor displays in the halls of various museums. Probably the most prominent of his installations is Von Jedem Eins (One of Each). As was the case with his participation in the Deep Storage exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich (1997) and his solo show at the Kunsthalle Mainz (2011), visitors walked across a long footbridge over his collection laid out on the floor. In the museums in Karlsruhe, Hamm, and Hanover, Karsten Bott arranged the objects on shelves, some of which were arranged as triptychs. The walkway, shelves, and display case floors are always kept in RAL gray 7040. When arranging objects, Karsten Bott follows categories he has created himself, such as factory, animals, living room, or religion. These can be seen in the displays or rows of shelves, yet still allow for further connections between the objects.

Works and exhibitions (selection):

Chewing Gums of Chicago, School of the Art Institute Chicago, 1991
Von Jedem Eins, Offenes Kulturhaus Linz, 1993
Hosentaschensammlung, Sparkasse Frankfurt/M., 1996
Von Jedem Eins, exhibition participation as part of Deep Storage. Arsenale der Erinnerung. Sammeln, Speichern Archivieren in der Kunst, Haus der Kunst Munich, Kulturforum Berlin, Kunstmuseum im Ehrenhof Düsseldorf, PS1 New York, and Henry Art Gallery Seattle 1997/98; exhibition catalog at
Things with Bridges, Art Center Cincinnati, 2002
Museum of Life, Castle Museum Norwich, 2007
Collected Fragments, Museum & Winter Garden Sunderland, 2009
Von Jedem Eins, 600 Qm, Kunsthalle Mainz, 2011

The exhibition Karsten Bott, Gleiche Vielfache (Karsten Bott, Equal Multiples) is in preparation for 2015 at the Historisches Museum in Frankfurt/M.

Karsten Bott, Von Jedem Eins (One from Each), published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne 2007