Blixa Bargeld reads Hornbach
“Blixa Bargeld reads Hornbach” is an extraordinary yet relevant campaign for Hornbach DIY superstore.
Blixa Bargeld in Vaske’s award winning Hornbach commercials
In a series of 13 spots Bargeld, founder and singer of the cult band “Einstürzende Neubauten”, reads the Hornbach catalogue, juxtaposing low art and high art in Ernst Jandl-style.
The winds of avantgarde blows through the Hornbach-catalogue when Blixa Bargeld shouts “Bohrlochschwämme” and “Silikatfarbe” and “Quarzitpolygonalplatten”.
Blixa Bargeld, who is known for his collaboration with theatre legend Heiner Müller and his “Hamlet-Maschine” as well as for his extraordinary stage acts, delivers a breathtaking performance in his readings, authentic, powerful, sensitive and ironic at the same time.
“Those films are uncommercials. And a great example of what’s possible”, says Paul Arden from ASD Lionheart. “Blixa Bargeld turns the banal of the small print into a piece of art.”
Left:Blixa Bargeld in Vaske’s award winning Hornbach commercials
Right: Blixa Bargeld and Hermann Vaske during the shoot in Cannes
The films were conceptualized by Heimat Berlin and directed by Hermann Vaske, who also produced the spots. They were shot on Super 8 on location, including an old aviation control station, an old harbour mole, a former hotel and an underground car park. “Blixa Bargeld reads Hornbach” is the discovery of beauty in unexpected places.
Everyday culture is celebrated and day-to-day art business ridiculed. “Sometimes you can only see the truth when you turn things upside down” says Blixa Bargeld. “To read the Hornbach-catalogue wasn’t my idea, but I liked the idea and that is why I did it. If I hadn’t treated texts in this way this before, I wouldn’t have been able to see that it’s possible.”
“I was fascinated by the project because it fulfilled my definition of creativity: to bring two things together that have nothing to do with each other, to form a third,” says director Hermann Vaske who collaborated before with Bargeld for a commercial for the Erotic Art Museum in Hamburg.
The spots were shown on VIVA Music Television in conjunction with a Bargeld special. They will be shown on ARTE as part of a thematic evening about poetry.