Collaboration with Marlene Dietrich on the book "Some Facts about Myself", for the occasion of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Her essay that gave the book it's title was the last text that Marlene Dietrich wrote in her life.
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Helnwein meets Miles Davis and writes an essay for Miles' first exhibition of his paintings at Museum Morsbroich in Germany.
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Helnwein meets Leni Riefenstahl in Munich.
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One-man show - Museum St. Ingbert, St. Ingbert, and installation „Neunter November Nacht“.

One-man show - Kunstverein Ludwigsburg.

One-man show - Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne, Einzelausstellung.

Helnwein meets former German Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt, who sits for a porttrait foto session.

1989 One-man show at Folkwang Museum in Essen.
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Helnwein meets William S. Burroughs in Lawrence, Kansas.
Burroughs says about Helnwein: "It is the function of the artist to evoke the experience of surprised recognition: to show the viewer what he knows but does not know that he knows.
Helnwein is a master of surprised recognition" ...

Helnwein meets Elia Kazan in New York.

Helnwein meets Keith Haring in Düsseldorf.
Keith draws on Ali Helnwein's hand ...

Helnwein meets with Lech Walensa, President of the Republic of Poland, in Germany, who sits for a portrait session.

Helnwein meets Norman Mailer in Provincetown.
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Torino Fotografia 1989, Biennale Internationale.
Gottfried Helnwein, David Hockney, Clegg and Guttmann ...

Stage design and costumes for "Oedipus" by Sophocles at Hans Kresnik's Choreographic Theatre in Heidelberg.

Work on the set and costumes for "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff at the Bayerische Staatsoper opera house (opening of the 1990 Munich Festival).
When Wolfgang Sawallisch, the head of the Staatsoper, sees the radical costume design, he is so shocked that he immediately calls a press conference and announces the sacking of Gottfried Helnwein and director Hans Kresnik ...

Cooperation with German playwright Heiner Müller and choreographer Hans Kresnik on a play about Antonin Artaud.
Heiner Müller says about Helnwein: "How does a friendly person like Helnwein stand making his - excellent - painting into a mirror of the terrors of this century? Or is it that he can't stand not doing it?" ...

Helnwein's photographic work from 1970 to 1989 is published by Dai Nipon in Japan. Text by Toshiharu Ito.
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1988 Large installation in the city center of Cologne, between the Ludwig Museum and the Cologne Cathedral: "Neunter November Nacht" (Ninth November Night).
A four-meter-high, hundred-meter-long picture lane in which Helnwein recalls the "Reichskristallnacht", the beginning of the Holocaust, on 9 November 1938. He confronts the passersby with larger-than-life children's faces lined up in a seemingly endless row, as if for concentration camp selection. Just days into the exhibit, these portraits were vandalized by unknown persons, symbolically cutting the throats of the depicted children's faces.
Since then large scale installations in public spaces became an important part of his work ...

Set, costumes, and make-up for "Macbeth", a production of Hans Kresnik's choreographic theatre in the Stadttheater in Heidelberg.
The play is given an enthusiastic reception by audience and critics and is later awarded the Theatre Prize of Berlin ...