Jürgen Klauke and Paul Seawright at Paris Galleries

In 2001, Paris hosted concurrent exhibitions of German artist Jürgen Klauke and Irish photographer Paul Seawright. Klauke's work was shown at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) from June 20 to September 2, 2001, under the title "Le Désastre du moi. 1996-2001," and at Galerie Cent8 from June 1 to July 28, 2001. The exhibitions covered his performances from the 1970s to recent works, exploring themes of queer identity, the subject-object relationship, and tragicomic absurdity. Klauke's pieces like "Self-Performance" (1972-73), "Rot" (1974), and "Dr Müller Sex-Shop" (1977) parody gender norms, while later works such as "Formalisierung der Langeweile" (1980-81) and "Verticales Denken" (1990-92) depict the subject overwhelmed by objects. His triptychs "Révélation" and "Invasion du désir" (1996-98) feature suspended balloons. Seawright's exhibition at Galerie du Jour agnès b. from June 2 to 30, 2001, presented two series: "Sectarian Murder" (1996) and "The Map" (2000). "Sectarian Murder" documents sites of political murders in Northern Ireland with accompanying texts, while "The Map" explores the urban landscape of Tallaght, featuring walls, bricks, and bucolic scenes. Seawright's work addresses the Northern Ireland conflict through traces rather than direct depiction, as seen in earlier series "Cages," "Fires," and "Walls" (1997).