John Bock (b. 1965, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. He is a multidisciplinary artist, active as a performer, sculptor, and filmmaker. He is best known for his surreal and complex theatrical performances, which he writes and directs, staging a highly visual, layered, and extreme universe.
His installations are characterized by an excessive formal and aesthetic saturation: Bock draws from a wide range of sources, expressive codes, and artistic genres, moving fluidly between theater and cinema. Excess becomes his dominant stylistic feature—an abundance of materials, colors, sounds, and forms overwhelms the viewer, immersing them in a total and disorienting sensory experience.
A striking example of this approach is Cowwidinok, a fictional film created for the exhibition Im Modder der Summenmutation, held in Bonn from 2013 to 2014. In this work, actors move through a multitude of sets, each inspired by a different theatrical or cinematic genre: from the theater of the absurd to soap opera, from fairy tale to thriller, to folk theater, in a constant mutation of style and tone.
The installation accompanying the film consists of a large cube-like structure, similar to a box, containing a projector inside. Through a peephole, visitors can peer inside and witness a miniature theater—grotesque and surreal—where a disturbing yet magnetic performance unfolds.
A central camera rotates constantly, capturing scenes arranged in a radial pattern around the central space. The characters inhabiting this microcosm are eccentric: an 18th-century nobleman, a possible serial killer, a woman in Renaissance dress, and a person wearing a puppet’s mask. These figures, originating from incompatible theatrical and narrative worlds, share the same stage, interacting with each other in unpredictable ways. The result is a stylistic and semantic short circuit that veers into the paradoxical, the fantastical, and the unsettling. Absurdity is amplified by a visual maximalism that dissolves any sense of time and space, hypnotizing the viewer and suspending rational expectation.
This installation is currently part of Psychonauts, a two-person exhibition featuring John Bock and Heiner Franzen, on view at the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin. The title of the show plays on the term “psychonaut”, echoing “astronaut,” but shifting the meaning from outer space travel to an inner journey into the subconscious and the human mind.
Through a selection of works that blend film, theater, drawing, and installation, the exhibition offers an exploration of the psychic realm, approached as a space to be navigated with imagination and freedom. The visions of Bock and Franzen converge in a dimension suspended between dream and reality, evoking alternative worlds—often grotesque, yet always rich in expressive power and visual charisma. Psychonauts invites viewers to be transported into an immersive, psychedelic experience where art and the unconscious merge into a timeless visual narrative.
John Bock
Psychonauts
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
On view until August 11, 2025
Berlinische Galerie
John Bock, COWWIDINOK, 2015, Videostill, © John Bock
26/07/25
