Klaus, vom Bruch
«Coventry War Requiem»

Two portraits on video are the point of departure for the installation ‘Coventry War Requiem', which Klaus vom Bruch first presented at the ‘documenta 8' in Kassel. It shows Klaus vom Bruch and his father listening to Benjamin Britten's ‘War Requiem', a composition lamenting the devastation by German bombs of the city of Coventry during WWII. Because the music occasionally audible in the space is the basis of their visible reactions, it forges a link between either protagonist, clasping together historical events and the artist's personal genealogy.
Shot against a dark background, the men's faces are presented on separate monitors wedged under the ceiling of the exhibition space on tall iron tablets tapering inward in periscope-like fashion. These slightly slanting steles also optically disrupt the statics of the space. In later versions, the iron tablets were placed flat on the floor.