Lotte Reimann
Temptation or Dr. de Clérambault
Germany
Temptation or Dr. de Clérambault is a dual photographical research into the art history term “drapery studies”. It comprises on one hand a photographic image collection sourced and appropriated from the internet that includes, among others, the iconic image of a patient with elephantiasis; recommended burqas on the commercial site ali-express; wearable computing; or a camouflaged armored vehicle. On the other hand, the life of Gaëtan Gatian de Clérambault, a pathological psychiatrist from the early 20th century, who was passionately involved with drapery himself. Temptation or Dr. de Clérambault is driven by a fascination with the invisible, or better yet, that which is hidden from sight, where the issue of who has agency over ‘the image’ is the eye of a storm of thoughts, interrogations and doubts. Fact and fiction fuse into a quasi-biographical document that explores changing social and political norms around physicality, sexuality and ownership.
