“Half man, half woman – half man, half Josefsohn”: it’s a dictum that has ‘tagged’ itself into the memory lik e no other originating from the Josefsohn studio. It was scribbled on a wall in Daniel Josefsohn’s old coach house in Bergstrasse. Like a smack in the face, it accords perfectly with Josefsohn’s analogue collages which do not pull any punches. Sometimes ironic, sometimes overblown, the people portrayed are shredded and stitched together in new ways – photos as strange states of being. The numerous ‘snippet containers’ and sticker boxes which were discovered in the studio after Josefsohn’s death are testimony to this hodgepodge of the unfinished. The enjoyment of appropriation in collage format, of alienation and of taking things to an extreme is just as much a part of this amorphous Josefsohn world as the childish pleasure in the improper and drastic. The themes chosen are not always as ‘in your face’ as S.O.S Kinderdorf but often of a relevance – via the back door, so to spea k – with current headline-making stories and controversies in mind. By going against the grain to such an extent, these portraits suddenly make a lot of sense in their ambivalence, their ability to hit the nail on the head and their humour. This compilation will be exhibited for the first time in Galerie pavlov’s dog. Thus the artist returns after his extraordinary debut in 2010 to the same place – welcome back, Daniel!
Daniel Josefsohn (1961 - 2016) was born in Hamburg to Jewish parents. The former Waldorf student and ex-skater broadened his horizons as a teenager during extended stays in the US, Israel and Germany before embarking on a career as a self-taught photographer. After he shot to fame for his legendary Miststück campaign on behalf of the music channel MTV in 1994, he worked for numerous magazines and periodicals. From 2007, his work received increasing ex posure in a theatrical context. Between 2007 and 2009, he was responsible for the poster campaigns of the Theater Festival Impulse, and from 2010 to 2013 for those of the Berliner Volksbühne on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and of the Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg. Various solo exhibitions followed: in Galerie Pavlov’s Dog (2011), LIEBER GOTT VERGIEBE MIR (DEAR GOD FORGIVE ME); in the Kunstverein Hamburg (2010), ES WIRD ALLES GUT MUTTER (EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT MOTHER) and in the Kunstverein Jesteburg (2014), MACHEN SIE AUCH PASSFOTOS? (DO YOU DO PASSPORT PHOTOS?). After suffering a stroke in 2012, Josefsohn documented his convalescence for the next 12 months in a series called AM LEBEN (ALIVE) in the Photography section of ZEITmagazin and contrasted it with partly humorous, partly melancholic musings on his previously fast-paced life. His first monograph was published in autumn 2014 under the title OKDJ by Hatje Cantz Verlag. Daniel Josefsohn died on 13th August 2016 at the age of 53.
Opening: 9th of November 2018, 7 pm, special guest: Moritz von Uslar, Exhibition period: 10.11. - 12.1.2019
pavlov’s dog . Bergstrasse 19 . 10115 Berlin
Daniel Josefsohn (1961 - 2016) was born in Hamburg to Jewish parents. The former Waldorf student and ex-skater broadened his horizons as a teenager during extended stays in the US, Israel and Germany before embarking on a career as a self-taught photographer. After he shot to fame for his legendary Miststück campaign on behalf of the music channel MTV in 1994, he worked for numerous magazines and periodicals. From 2007, his work received increasing ex posure in a theatrical context. Between 2007 and 2009, he was responsible for the poster campaigns of the Theater Festival Impulse, and from 2010 to 2013 for those of the Berliner Volksbühne on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and of the Jewish Film Festival Berlin & Brandenburg. Various solo exhibitions followed: in Galerie Pavlov’s Dog (2011), LIEBER GOTT VERGIEBE MIR (DEAR GOD FORGIVE ME); in the Kunstverein Hamburg (2010), ES WIRD ALLES GUT MUTTER (EVERYTHING WILL BE ALRIGHT MOTHER) and in the Kunstverein Jesteburg (2014), MACHEN SIE AUCH PASSFOTOS? (DO YOU DO PASSPORT PHOTOS?). After suffering a stroke in 2012, Josefsohn documented his convalescence for the next 12 months in a series called AM LEBEN (ALIVE) in the Photography section of ZEITmagazin and contrasted it with partly humorous, partly melancholic musings on his previously fast-paced life. His first monograph was published in autumn 2014 under the title OKDJ by Hatje Cantz Verlag. Daniel Josefsohn died on 13th August 2016 at the age of 53.
Opening: 9th of November 2018, 7 pm, special guest: Moritz von Uslar, Exhibition period: 10.11. - 12.1.2019
pavlov’s dog . Bergstrasse 19 . 10115 Berlin
