In Leder
The publication presents the series of “leathered” instruments and allows us to hear the newly created sounds
The publication shows the work In Leder by the artist Käthe Kruse. In Leder consists of 20 leather-covered instruments. The starting point was the drum kit that Käthe Kruse played in the iconic band Die Tödliche Doris in the 1980s and which she “leathered in” as the first of the instruments in an act of transformation and redefinition. This was followed by the guitar, bass, violin, clarinet, recorder, rattles, accordion, cymbals, kettle, xylophon, and claves, which, once covered in leather, became objects in their own right. The new sounds can be heard, and the instruments can be played in the e-book.
The leathered instruments continue to be played in performative settings. In the performance Lieder in Leder* Kruse sings songs from Chöre & Soli, half-hidden in a column of leather. She is accompanied by her daughter Edda Kruse Rosset on the leather-covered drums. All instruments are used in Konzert in Leder. Sophia Bicking, Danielle de Picciotto, Alexander Hacke, Edda Kruse Rosset and Alma Neumann will accompany Kruse at the world premiere on April 10, 2025, at the Berlinische Galerie. Kruse beats the metal sheets printed with the lyrics of the songs, which create a clattering counter-sound to the instruments muffled by the leather. The performances Lieder in Leder and Konzert in Leder are included in the e-book as videos.
*Lieder in Leder are based on the short acappella songs from the box Chöre & Soli by Die Tödliche Doris, published in 1984 by Gelbe Musik, Berlin, and Pure Freude, Düsseldorf.
Käthe Kruse
Käthe Kruse, born in Bünde in 1958, lives and works in Berlin. Since the 1980s, as part of the West Berlin avant-garde trio Die Tödliche Doris (The Deadly Doris, founded in 1979/80 by Wolfgang Müller and Nikolaus Utermöhlen), she has been exploring the interweaving of music, text, performance, video, film and painting, and has developed new formats that cannot be categorised in conventional ways. As a solo artist, Käthe Kruse also conceptually combines a wide variety of media to create her own artistic approach.
From 1990 to 1997 Käthe Kruse studied Visual Communication at Hochschule der Künste Berlin. She was a master student of Heinz Emigholz and recipient of the scholarship for the promotion of young talent. In 1999 she received the DAAD scholarship, Bonn, 2004 the artist’s grant, Stiftung Kulturfonds, Berlin, 2008 the artist’s grant, Senate Department for Cultural Affairs, Berlin, 2020 the catalogue grant from the Senate Department for Culture and Europe, Berlin, as well as the grant NEUSTART KULTUR, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Bonn, and 2021 the Peter Jacobi Werkpreis of the Peter Jacobi Foundation for Art and Design, Pforzheim. She has been President of the International Artists’ Committee IKG since 2023.
Together with Der Tödlichen Doris she was shown at MoMA, N.Y., at documenta, Kassel (1987) and at the Museé d’Art Moderne, Paris (1982). She has shown her installations at the Kunsthalle Bremerhaven (2000), the Hamburger Bahnhof (2002 and 2022), the Galerie der Stadt Schwaz (2017), the Centre d’Art Contemporain, Lausanne and the Kunstverein Tiergarten (2020), the Berlinische Galerie (2022) and the Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (2023/2024).
She has taught at the Muthesius Academy of Art in Kiel and the Zurich University of the Arts. Käthe Kruse is represented by the ZWINGER Galerie, Berlin
Concept: Käthe Kruse & Janine Sack
Photography: Christine Fenzl
Sound Engineering: Alexander Hacke
Design: Janine Sack
Image processing: Johann Hausstätter
Proofreading: Florian Wüst (DE), Ania Corcilius (EN)
Font: Aktiv Grotesk
German / English
32 pages, 27 illustrations, 20 sounds, 2 videos
2025
ISBN 978-3-947295-96-8 (epub)
9,99 Euro
Also available as limited edition (100)
28 pages, 21 illustrations
Layflat binding, signed, including the e-book
ISBN 978-3-947295-99-9
40,00 Euro
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