Udo is Love
Time Is Sin – A Journey into the Extraordinary Life of Udo Kier

27.9.–18.12.24

Opening: Thursday, 26.9., from 6 pm

Udo Kier was born in Cologne’s district of Lindenthal on 14 October 1944. That evening, the nurse placed all the children in the maternity ward on a table, ready to be washed. Udo’s mother asked if she could hold her son in her arms a little while longer. When the bomb struck, she was able to cover him with one hand and hold back the collapsing wall with the other. None of the other newborns survived; only the two of them were dug out of the rubble of the delivery room alive. During operation Hurricane, more bombs were dropped on the Rheinland in the space of twenty-four hours than on any other day of the Second World War.

Udo grew up in the city’s district of Mülheim. In the morning, he would fold away his wall bed and walk to school over rubble. The evening meal alternated between lentil and potato soup. On Sundays, they had a piece of meat with a green salad and pudding. After dinner he would be given fifty pfennigs and go to the cinema. His favourite film was Suddenly, Last Summer with Elizabeth Taylor. To please his mother, he began an apprenticeship at a tool wholesaler in the nearby district of Kalk. By his early twenties he’d become a qualified salesman, and travelled to London in order to learn English. He was hoping to become something like the foreign business representative for the German pharmaceutical company Bayer. He’d earned the money for the journey by working on the production line at Ford. London offered opportunities that Cologne never could. Several unknown men invited him for a glass of champagne in a nightclub. They introduced themselves as Visconti, Nureyev and Berger. Kier knew from shaving in the mirror every morning that he looked incredible. In London he discovered his good fortune of being in the right place at the right time. The singer and producer Michael Sarne gave him the part of the gigolo in Road to San Tropez (1966). Beneath the camera’s gaze, the man with the green eyes was reborn, and no one would forget them.

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Curated by Hans-Christian Dany and Valérie Knoll

With contributions by:

Robert van Ackeren, Gábor Altorjay, Kévin Blinderman / Pierre-Alexandre Mateos / Charles Teyssou, Tabea Blumenschein, Walter Bockmayer, Gábor Bódy, Marc Brandenburg, Klaus vom Bruch, Michael Buthe, Madonna Ciccone, Tom Dokoupil, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Annette Frick, Monika Funke-Stern, Greg Gorman, Gusztáv Hámos, Astrid Heibach, Birgit Hein, Wilhelm Hein, Jürgen Heiter, David Hogan, Daniel Josefsohn, Peter Kern, Udo Kier, Erwin Kneihsl, Hideo Kojima, Eckhard Kuchenbecker, Robert Longo, Guy Maddin, Charles Matton, Steven Meisel, Klaus Mettig, Elfi Mikesch, Paul Morrissey, Otto Muehl, Helmut Newton, Eva Maria Ocherbauer, Marcel Odenbach, Albert Oehlen, Kurt Raab, Ulrike Rosenbach, Ferdi Roth, Thomas Ruff, Eddy Saller, Christoph Schlingensief, Martin Schoeller, Ernst Schmidt Jr., Werner Schroeter, Elfie Semotan, Heji Shin, Katharina Sieverding, Jan Soldat, Andrea Stappert, Todd Stephens, Wolfgang Tillmans, Monika Treut, Rosemarie Trockel, Lars von Trier, Gus Van Sant, Timo Vuorensola, Andy Warhol, Craig Zahler, Joseph Zehrer, Britta Zöllner a.o.

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive programme of films shown in collaboration with Film Festival Cologne:
Tuesday, 1.10.2024, 7 pm: Schamlos, 1968, 78 min, KKV
Tuesday, 8.10.2024, 7 pm: Flesh for Frankenstein, 1973, 95 min, KKV
Tuesday, 15.10.2024, 7 pm: Blood for Dracula, 1974, 106 min, KKV
Tuesday, 22.10.2024, TBA: Swan Song, 2021, 105 min, Filmpalast
Friday, 25.10.2024, 8 pm: Belcanto oder Darf eine Nutte schluchzen?, 1977, 94 min, FHK
Tuesday, 29.10.2024, 7 pm: 100 Jahre Adolf Hitler. Die letzten Stunden im Führerbunker, 1979, 48 min, KKV
Friday, 1.11.2024, 12 pm: Narziss und Psyche, 1980, 208 min, KKV
Friday, 1.11.2024, 8 pm: Die dritte Generation, 1979, 105 min, FHK
Tuesday, 12.11.2024, 7 pm: Insel der blutigen Plantage, 1983, 88 min, KKV
Friday, 15.11.2024, 9 pm: Pankow 95, 1983, FHK
Saturday, 16.11.2024, 5 pm: Verführung. Die grausame Frau, 1985, 84 min, FHK
Tuesday, 19.11.2024, 7 pm: Am nächsten Morgen kehrte der Minister nicht an seinen Arbeitsplatz zurück, 1985/1986, 70 min, KKV
Tuesday, 26.11.2024, 7 pm: Egomania, 1986, 83 min, KKV
Saturday, 30.11.2024, 9:30 pm: Europa, 1991, 112 min, FHK
Sunday, 1.12.2024, 8 pm: My Own Private Idaho, 1992, 104 min, FHK
Tuesday, 3.12.2024, 7 pm: Johnny Mnemonic, 1995, 92 min, KKV
Sunday, 8.12.2024, 12 pm: Bad Painter, 2024, 140 min, KKV
Tuesday, 10.12.2024, 7 pm: Barb Wire, 1996, 98 min, KKV
Friday, 13.12.2024, 9:30 pm: Iron Sky, 2012, 92 min, FHK
Saturday 14.12.2024, 5 pm: Goldflocken, 1976, 163 min, FHK
Tuesday, 17.12.2024, 7 pm: Brawl in Cell Block 99, 2017, 132 min, KKV

Venues
KKV – cinema of the Kölnischer Kunstverein (ground floor), Hahnenstraße 6, 50667 Cologne
Filmpalast – Filmpalast Köln, Hohenzollernring 22, 50672 Cologne
FHK – Filmhaus Köln, Maybachstraße 111, 50670 Cologne

The exhibition is supported by:

Photo: Andrea Stappert, Udo Kier, Palm Springs 2013

Dear members and visitors, the Kölnischer Kunstverein is on summer break. We look forward to welcoming you again from September 27th during our regular opening hours and cordially invite you to the opening of the upcoming exhibition Udo is Love. Time is Sin – A Journey into the Extraordinary Life of Udo Kier on September 26 from 6 pm at the Kölnischer Kunstverein. Further information will follow shortly.