John Bock

John Bock is a German artist, born in Gribbohm in 1965. After initially studying Business Administration, he attended the University of Fine Arts Hamburg, completing his studies in 1997. He currently lives and works in Berlin and Karlsruhe. Bock is a multimedia artist best known for his performances. Since 1991, he has created handcrafted environments from found materials that function as symbolic settings for his "lectures." In recent years, film and video have assumed an increasingly prominent role in his practice. During his "lectures", Bock performs on "stages" constructed from tables, cupboards, and multilevel wooden structures. The objects he uses are handmade or modified accessories created from clothing, household appliances such as vacuum cleaners and food mixers, or "plastic diagrams" illustrating his mathematical explanations. After each lecture, these objects remain onstage, forming a "theatrical collage". The "lectures" are structured around different scenes in which Bock sometimes works with non-professional actors; he also frequently plays pop songs or classical music on a record player. The performances are generally recorded, and the resulting videos are subsequently incorporated into the installations, documenting and extending the original events throughout the exhibitions. Since 2004, Bock has been Professor of Sculpture at the State Academy of Fine Arts Karlsruhe. Bock has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including the Venice Biennale in 1999, 2003, 2005, and 2013, as well as documenta 11 in Kassel in 2002. He has held solo exhibitions at major international institutions, including the Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum in New York, KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, Kunsthalle Basel, the Vienna Secession, and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. His group exhibitions include Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art at the Barbican Centre and "Laughing in a Foreign Language" at the Hayward Gallery, both held in London in 2008. John Bock: Maltreated Frigate, a monograph devoted to his work, was published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König in 2007. Bock is represented by Anton Kern Gallery in New York and Regen Projects in Los Angeles.