»Le Sexe Rouge« (1997 / 2002)
Performance - Installation - Film
Das Blauelied
Zatteltracht im Zauberwald
Milan auf der Gebirgswiese
Fettschwalm
Tod einer Prinzessin aus Bhutan
Gaby
Jahresfarbenstreifenlied
Alphabet des Augenblicks
Die Tochter
L´amour analphabète
Auf dem Kopf von Käthe Kruse
Le Sexe Rouge
Von seinem Leib hab ich´s geleckt
Käthe Kruse, born in 1958 in Bünde / Westfalen, became known as a member of Berlin's »Die Tödliche Doris« from 1980–87. This group of musicians and artists was active – along with groups like Einstürzende Neubauten – in the Berlin scene of so-called »genius-dilettantes«. Käthe Kruse appeared with the group as a drummer, singer, performer and artist in concerts and exhibitions at venues such as the Musèe d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and documenta 8 in Kassel. Even in those days, their concerts were often equally performances, with pictures and objects, films and videos being created for or during the concerts. After »Die Tödlichen Doris« split up, Kruse developed her art in cyclical series of works that were shown at the Kunst Raum in Vienna, Kunstverein Walcheturm in Zurich and elsewhere. Parallel to this, she studied visual communication at the University of Fine Arts in Berlin. She was awarded a university scholarship, won Kassel's »Bruederhilfe Insurance« competition for art on buildings in 1996, and graduated with honors in 1997. In 1999, her solo exhibition »Traces«, curated by Nan Goldin, opened in New York, followed that summer by a retrospective on »Die Tödliche Doris« at the Kunstamt Kreuzberg. At year's end, she performed at the opening of the exhibition »Das XX. Jahrhundert« at the Kunstbibliothek in the Berlin Kulturforum.
In 1997 Kruse released the CD »Le Sexe Rouge« with 13 songs which she composed and performed. The title song refers to an installation shown in 1996 at the Zwinger Gallery in Berlin; in subsequent years, Kruse developed a complex visual environment for each of the 13 songs. In 2000, she presented the 13 artworks in an exhibition at the Kunstverein Bremerhaven. Not only did she design an object or a series of pictures for each song, she also worked out entire performance situations, each containing a film, a color slide projection, and singing and acting. The listener-viewers follow the artist on her path through the concert-installation, accompanying her from situation to situation, from song to song – experiencing the complex of work that is »Le Sexe Rouge« as a multidimensional composition of images, text, music and projections.