Soul Brothers & Sisters

A series of wooden-framed photographs, each: upright format W 38.13 x H 42 cm, land­scape format B 51,63 x H 28 cm (Edition of 7)

Concept Tanya Ury
Camera: Tanya Ury
Digital processing: Claudia Stasch and Ingolf Pink

Insur­ance value: each picture 1,000 Euros

Since 2010, Tanya Ury has been working on the research project Who’s Boss – Empire’s New Clothes, as PhD. in Human­i­ties candi­date at Leiden Univer­sity, Insti­tute for Cultural Disci­plines (NL)

Spring 2005, Hugo Boss manu­fac­tured and presented a new men’s cologne with the adver­tising campaign: Body, Mind and Soul: Do you have what it takes to be successful? Behind the surface of every man is his soul. Sharpen your mind. Chal­lenge your body.”

The photo series Soul Brothers & Sisters is a collage of the Hugo Boss Body, Mind and Soul” advert digi­tally combined with portraits of people wearing Tanya Ury’s T‑shirt with her trans­formed Boss Logo design that incor­po­rates the SS Rune. Displaying the Nazi symbol is illegal in Germany. But a complete reap­praisal of history is often not made; those depicted in Soul Brothers & Sisters are indi­vid­uals who, having discov­ered the history of the fashion busi­ness Hugo Boss that made Nazi uniforms, with a forced labour personnel, wished to be involved in the expo­sure of this fact to a wider public.

  1. Soul Brother: Shaheen. Shaheen Merali artist and Head (of the section): Exhi­bi­tion, Film, New Media, House of World Cultures, Berlin, March 2005. Back­ground: 17.3 – 15.5.05” by Michael Lin, foyer, House of World Cultures.
  1. Soul Brother: Robert. Robert Lippok, musi­cian, c.sides festival, Jerusalem (IL), 31.8.2006. Back­ground: Beth Schmuel Hostel, Jerusalem.
  1. Soul Brother: Alex. Alexander Nikolic, artist, film maker, performer and researcher photographed at Open Space”, Zentrum für Kunst­pro­jekte (Centre for Art Projects), World-Ex-Posi­tion 08 Vienna 25.4.2008 (A)
  1. Soul Brother: Stefan. Stefan Lutschinger, free-lance artist and philoso­pher, photographed at Open Space”, Zentrum für Kunst­pro­jekte (Centre for Art Projects), at the World-Ex-Posi­tion 08, Vienna 25.4.2008 (A)
  1. Soul Brother & Sister: Amin and Lale. Amin Farzanefar, Film and culture publi­cist special­ising in the Middle and Near Eastern cinema and Lale Konuk, manager of the Arkadas Theatre – Stages of Diverse Culture, Cologne, 2008 (D)
  1. Soul Sister: Tanja. Tanja Ostojic, inter­dis­ci­pli­nary artist and cultural activist, at a gentri­fi­ca­tion site taking place in her neigh­bour­hood in Berlin-Mitte, 5.11.2010
  1. Soul Sister: Iris. Iris Hefets-Borchardt, Israeli-Jewish polit­ical activist, in Café Bravo, Kunst­werke, Insti­tute for Contem­po­rary Art, Berlin 5.11.2010
  1. Soul Brother: Wayne. Wayne Yung, queer video artist, at home. in Berlin Pren­zlauer­berg, 6.11.2010
  1. Soul Brother: Amit. Amit Epstein, video and perfor­mance artist, fashion and theatre designer at his studio, in Berlin-Schöneberg, 8.11.2010
  1. Soul Sister Ruth: Ruth Novaczek, film­maker with her artwork Yid”, at her home in Fins­bury Park, London, 3.12.2010
  1. Soul Brother Nick: Nick Stewart, artist, in the back­yard of the Scooter Caffe, in London, 4.12.2010
  1. Soul Sister Cécile: Cécile Chich, art lover, writer, Queer activist, in London, 5.12.2010
  1. Soul Brother Roland: Roland Graeter (cello and voice impro­vi­sa­tion) in front of Gerhard Richter’s Bridge 14 FEB 45” (2000÷2001), before the Music Marathon concert, # 194 in Tanya Ury’s flat, Cologne 13.7.2011

Who’s Boss — a collec­tion of works:




Presen­ta­tion

2006 (26.7. – 9.8.) Solo exhi­bi­tion, seminar Presen­ta­tion: Who’s Boss, 4 pm 26.-7 in the exhi­bi­tion, Tüzraktér Inde­pen­dent Cultural Centre, Budapest (HU)

2006 (28.8. – 3.9) Who’s Boss as Seminar presen­ta­tion, c.sides Festival, Inter­na­tional Conven­tion Center, Jerusalem (IL)

2006 (2.9.- end September) Group exhi­bi­tion, Soul Brother Shaheen, Connec­tion, Propeller, Berlin (D)

2006 (3.11.) Who’s Boss seminar presen­ta­tion, work­shop with pupils from the Anne-Frank-Realschule (secondary modern), Bochumer Kulturrat, (D)

2007 (23.3.) On the online Femi­nist Art Base: www​.brook​lyn​mu​seum​.org… Who’s Boss: Soul Brother Shaheen, The Eliz­a­beth A. Sackler Center for Femi­nist Art, The Brooklyn Museum, New York (USA)

2007 (4. – 7.4) Who’s Boss power point presen­ta­tion Saturday, April 7th, 8:00 – 9:30 a.m., Salon K , Fashion, Appear­ance and Consumer Iden­tity, Popular Culture Asso­ci­a­tion, Thirty-seventh Annual Meeting, Boston Marriott, Boston (USA) www​.popu​lar​cul​ture​.org…

2008 (16. – 18.5) Who’s Boss power point presen­ta­tion in German, Limmud-Festival Werbellinsee (Jugen­der­hol­ungs- und Begeg­nungsstätte) www​.limmud​.de/​2008_en/… (D)

2012 (11.6) Tanya Ury is the featured artist with new works in the June edition online of Imag­i­na­tions: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies, Univer­sity of Alberta, Canada, with Videos: Inti­macy, cement & dark room; a series of 17 concrete poems, the photo­graph Alibi­jude, Selec­tion from the Who’s Boss series, and 8 photos from Soul Brothers & Sisters, also 3 photos of Occupy in Stras­bourg, from the Fading into the Fore­ground series; further­more 5 toned poems (sounds, music and sound mix Kasander Nilist) and a peer review inter­view (text and Skype video) with Claude Desmarais, (CA) www​.csj​.ualberta​.ca/im…

Artist’s Writ­ings & Publications

2005 Stets gern für Sie beschäftigt…” (”Always glad to be of service…”) cata­logue, ifa Galerie, Berlin (D)

2006 (1418.6) Who’s Boss as archival mate­rial, Performing Rights Library a four-day confer­ence and accom­pa­nying programme of live events Perfor­mance Studies inter­na­tional (PSi) #12: Performing Rights, Queen Mary, Univer­sity of London (GB)

2007 (7) Publi­ca­tion of Who’s Boss article in Translate/​Narrate issue, volume 20, n.paradoxa, Inter­na­tional Femi­nist Art Journal, London (GBweb​.ukon​line​.co​.uk/n.p…

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