Leni Lafayette

Female, young, attractive, queer and trained as a rabbi. How does it all go together? On the one hand there is the Beloved Mischpoke, religion with a traditional setting, festivals and rites. On the other hand, there is the modern, lively, colorful and queer life in today’s big city, which increasingly includes self-portrayal in social networks.

With his work “Leni Lafayette”, Wolfgang Kuehn portrays a young woman, Jewish and feminist at the same time. The liberal Jew lives in the middle of the more modern, lively life of the big city Berlin, describes herself as queer, and is currently training to be a rabbi. The work thematizes the problem of traditional religion as well as young, modern and queer life. Does queerness stand in ambivalence to the Beloved Mischpoke or will this become a natural part of the existing structures.

For the “Leni Lafayette” project, Wolfgang Kuehn did not pick up the camera himself, but only uses material from social media. Over 500 photos and texts from Instagram were edited and merged in a digital collage. These are photos and texts about the beloved Mischpoke, from the Torah scroll to Queer Pride flags to snapshots of everyday life. In the exhibition of the BBK-Kunstforum, the digital collage is presented as a large printout on photo paper.

Artwork

Leni Lafayette, Digital Collage, 176x119
Scroll to Top