“In 2019, on his way to one of his jobs, Johannes Hugo Stoll frequently passed the statue of Wilhelm I. Located in the centre of the German city of Karlsruhe, the statue depicts the Kaiser on horseback, dressed in a general’s uniform. The monument, created in 1897 by the sculptor Adolf Heer, is cast in bronze and set on a three-part plinth of Swedish red granite, mounted on a stepped pedestal. The historical figure — passive in the face of everyday realities — dominates Kaiserplatz, projecting the Kaiser’s historical and political message. Wilhelm I is publicly represented in more than 1,000 statues distributed across locations worldwide.

Influenced by the pandemic context, the German artist Hugo Stoll decided to apply to the statue of Wilhelm I one of the most widespread medical practices of the present day. Stoll thus inscribes the figure of Germany’s founder within the pandemic’s contemporary realities. Equipped with a telescopic pole, a video camera, and a biological sampling device, Hugo Stoll enters the Kaiser’s nostril and collects biological samples, which he then subjects to molecular testing in the Department of Genetics at the Institute for Applied Biosciences in Karlsruhe.

Stoll’s artistic gesture seeks to foreground the ways in which different kinds of realities intersect, repel one another, or gravitate around us. Is History OK? is an artistic research project that brings together references and practices drawn from CRISPR-based genetic technology, history, political culture, and art, in order to reveal the fragility of reality and the ease with which it can be manipulated.”

(Adrian Bojenoiu)

Johannes Hugo Stoll (b. 1986, Idar-Oberstein, Germany) studied at various art academies in Mainz, Leipzig, Warsaw, Seoul, and Stuttgart, where he graduated in 2017 with a participatory work on takeaway culture. In his artistic practice, he transforms everyday observations and situations into material objects. His point of departure in making objects is the human body. He takes things in hand, deforming their material qualities in order to underscore the performative dimension of our everyday relations.

Recent exhibitions and awards include: Out Of The Blue, MMCA Residency Goyang, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Seoul, South Korea (2022); Archaeoptemist, WUKA – Naturalia / Artificialia, Stuttgart, Germany (2022); Positive Vibration, ElectroPutere Gallery, Craiova, Romania (2021); ¯ _ (ツ) _ / ¯ (Shrug), Centre Culturel Franco-Allemand, Karlsruhe, Germany (2021); Twittering Machine, Burg Galerie, Volkspark Halle (Saale), Germany (2020); Strike Gently Away, Salzburg, Austria (2019); Where Plato Taught, Youth Art Biennial, Franzensfeste, Bolzano, Italy (2018).

Exhibition realised with the support of ElectroPutere Gallery, Craiova, and the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN).

Cultural project co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund (AFCN). This project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. The AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for the ways in which the project’s results may be used. Responsibility lies entirely with the funding recipient.