"ich geh jetzt in den birkenwald, denn meine pillen wirken bald"

collage, C-prints on cardboard

signed and dated (pencil) on recto

The collage is an extension of the original work as an installation. In this installation, Martin Kippenberger takes up the motif of the forest. In German Romanticism, the forest became a place of longing, idyll and resonance. The anthropomorphic forms of the birch trunks, as well as the differently curved lanterns grouped with them, can be read as ironic self-portraits. The oversized pills turned from wood and lying between the trunks are also related to the body: they are the pills that Kippenberger had to swallow every day due to his illness, and which in turn had an influence on his physical and mental condition.
The title of this multi-part installation is a typical Schüttelreim, which has been used in the German-speaking world since the 19th century mainly for amusing two-liners. This phrase explains the entire work with the enigmatic humour typical of Kippenberger, who here indirectly expresses his search or longing for healing and recovery.
(Lenbachhaus, Munich 2019)