M HKA Ensembles

Textile, 20 x 15 cm.

Collection: Collection M HKA.

Schutz gegen Anfassen is part of a series of small works on cardboard hidden in pieces of denim that are sewn up and written on with felt-tip pen, stamped 'REINECKE' (1969-70). In addition to 'protection against touching', the following words feature in the series: leafing through, scratching, pricking, folding, creasing, cracking, greasing. Although they were carefully stitched up, described and stamped by Chris Reinecke, these pieces of material undermine every form of artistic virtuosity. This work struck me as a concrete poetic harbinger of punk and the general shift from auratic 'art-can-change-the-world' ideals to a disillusionment in a rough and trivial society. The sensuality stemming from phenomenology that had led to an interactive art practice was suddenly widespread and as early as 1969, Reinecke noticed the annoying tendency among the audience to touch everything. She considered sensuality exhausted and no longer a sufficient method for social change.

From an interview with the artist on the 22nd of January 2021: “I was very angry and I no longer wanted people to touch things, as had become the fashion in art. The idea was to not see and not touch. The fabric is from one of Jörg Immendorff's shirts.”