Tenskasven (IKEApayback): Bernd Krauß in Full Figure

In this “repro-spective,” Bernd Krauß surveys thirty years of his artistic practice, with two-thirds of which have taken place in Sweden. In Konstverkstan, the focus is on home furnishings: How does one build a space and a sense of home for, and through, one’s artistic practice? How is life and art-making affected by stability? And perhaps most importantly: how can the connection between art, function, and living become an invitation to the audience to sit down and experience art as something meaningful that concerns them?

On the 3rd floor, the exhibition continues as an experimental field for the creative process itself: a “recipe book” of around fifty existing works by Bernd Krauß invites visitors to recreate selected artworks. For example: fetch toilet paper around the corner, shape an egg with wallpaper paste, and then repack six, ten, or twelve of them in an egg carton. Done quite quickly it became “Bernd Krauß eggs.” But what do you do with this?

In connection with his exhibition at Kin, Bernd Krauß (born 1968 in Nuremberg) will also hold a residency at the museum and lead a winter-break art camp. The art camp continues the Kiruna Art Academy, which Krauß launched during Kin’s Easter camp in 2024. He works in a wide range of media—painting, sculpture, installation, photography, and much more—creating situations in exhibition spaces and other places that grow over time as playful interventions. His work focuses on invisible and unexpected contexts, which he likes to make visible together with schoolchildren and young adults. His method can best be described as detective missions or unusual excursions. His witty do-it-yourself technique often leads to new ways of seeing the surroundings, both in smaller social contexts and in wider society. Bernd Krauß has exhibited at, among others, Södertälje Konsthall, Tensta konsthall, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst (GfZK) Leipzig, the Kölnischer Kunstverein, and the Gwangju Biennale. The exhibition is part of Kin’s multi-year thematic thread Hand, Heart, and Brain.

Image 1: Bernd Krauß, How it happened (about the Third Hand)
Image 2: Bernd Krauß, How it happened (about the Third Hand)