Cowboy boots, epaulettes, leather pants, and corsets – in the sculptures, videos, and performances of Mike Bourscheid (*1984 in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg), the characters wear something eccentric. These individual elements already tell stories, refer to typical people wearing them and indicate their place in (cultural) history. But does that automatically make a character a princess, a cowboy, a father?

Mike Bourscheid designs and makes multilayered and symbolically charged costumes and props and makes them the central focus of his work. In order to produce these objects, he continuously acquires new craft skills – the process of hand-cutting, pottery, forging, and carving is central to his artistic approach. For example, he creates platform sandals that resemble cast-iron firewood brackets, a sequined headdress, or broom-trimmed gloves. Bourscheid’s protagonists (and often the artist himself) wear these things with great casualness – while dancing, eating, or running on the treadmill, even if sometimes one can hardly move with them.

In his humorous works, the artist affectionately plays with ideas of interpersonal relationships, with roles and identities, and questions the reliable interpretation and expressiveness of figure, masculinity, posture and clothing both mischievously and with urgency.

– Amely Deiss (Kunstapalais Erlangen)