Ohne Titel, from the series «Laternen», 1989

In 1990, the exhibition “The Disenchantment of the World” at the Villa Arson introduced viewers to this “street lamp for drunks” made one year earlier by Martin Kippenberger. As useless and winding as a cartoon figure, its improvised structure broken down into several elements serves as a sad companion to lonely nights and is a symbol of existential turmoil. The artist made a series of these, which he considered his alter-egos, accumulating vices in their antihero melancholy as they point the way to the Rotlichtviertel, the red-light district where prostitution reigns.