January 1st, 1991
Museum of Lower Austria, Vienna
Kindskopf
Peter Zawrel
director of the Museum of Lower Austria, Vienna
Installation in the Minorittenchurch, Krems
catalogue text by Peter Zawrel, Peter Gorsen and William S. Burroughs.
Kindskopf (Head of a Child)
Head of a Child

"KINDSKOPF", HELNWEIN'S PLEA FOR A DIFFERENT CHILDHOOD

Peter Zawrel, Chief Curator, Museum of Lower Austria, 1991

The auratic face of a child, six metres high, four metres wide, hanging in the triumphal arch of a medieval church, surrounded by dozens of canvases in the standard size of 200 by 140 cm that are mounted on the church's pillars and walls show heads and fantasy creatures which only on closer inspection may be easily recognized as children's drawings - once more Helnwein upsets traditional structures of perception in a number of ways, including the expectations that visitors have of a Helnwein exhibition. This is signalled already by the title "KINDSKOPF", which in addition to being a reference to the theme depicted (the head of a child) refers to the ironically serious self-representation of the artist (in German "Kindskopf" is a somewhat condescending colloquialism for an adult acting in childish ways), similar to Helnwein's earlier catalogue title "Subhuman" ("Untermensch") of 1988.
Preparation for the "Kindskopf" (Head of a Child) Installation
Preparation for the "Kindskopf" (Head of a Child) Installation
Helnwein working on "Kindskopf"
Helnwein and son Amadeus
Helnwein with his son Ali
Helnwein working on "Kindskopf"