Klaus vom Bruch, Artist in distribution, Germany, 1952

Klaus vom Bruch was born in 1952 in Cologne, Germany, where he still lives and works. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts in 1975-1976 under John Baldessari, and then spent a period studying philosophy at the University of Cologne. His work has been exhibited in numerous shows throughout Europe and North America and is part of permanent public collections in Switzerland, The Netherlands, Canada and the United States. Vom Bruch started working in video, performance and installation in the 1970's and his current practice focuses mostly on large-scale multimedia installation. Vom Bruch became widely recognized for his videos of the early to mid-1980's, which dealt with themes of post-war German identity in terms of the relationship between collective memory, technology and personal experience. These works were characterized by a split-second editing technique which juxtaposed different images to the point of indistinguishability, which vom Bruch slowed down in the late 1980's and early 1990's to more gradual fades between images and coloured, image-less space on the video screen. On the whole, his art deals with the relationship between the body, technology, and cultural myths of identification. His present works primarily explore how communication technology intersects public and private spheres.