Cuckoo clocks, Bollenhut hats and Bambi: few things stand so strongly for the Black Forest, and for what many understand by Heimat, the German word for home and homeland. Stefan Strumbel takes these symbols at their word, cranks them up and asks a simple but uncomfortable question: What the fuck is Heimat?
Heimat, Renegotiated
Stefan Strumbel is one of the young rising stars of the international art market. The artist from Offenburg in the Black Forest plays with clichés and stereotypes, exaggerating them to the point of absurdity. Who killed Bambi? and What the fuck is Heimat? are telling titles of his works. He breaks with traditional symbols, confronts them with provocation and thus frees them from the dust of folksy sentimentality. The result is neither glorification nor mere mockery, but an invitation to rethink what Heimat actually means today.
Bollenhut and Shotgun
Strumbel comes from graffiti and works with stencils, but applies the technique to the motifs of his homeland. His women and girls wearing the Bollenhut, the traditional Black Forest hat adorned with large pompoms, hold shotguns or are shown taking cocaine and heroin. The contrast could hardly be greater: the emblem of rural innocence collides with violence and intoxication.
Cuckoo Clocks with Hand Grenades
Strumbel also takes on the cuckoo clock, the ultimate symbol of the Black Forest around the world. He paints it in garish pop art colours and adorns its carvings with bones, skulls and weapons, while hand grenades hang from the chains in place of the classic pine-cone weights. The souvenir thus becomes a work of art that oscillates between kitsch and provocation, between love for one’s homeland and criticism of it. Karl Lagerfeld is also a fan: he has just portrayed himself in stern magazine with his pop art cuckoo clock by Stefan Strumbel.
From Munich and Berlin to Düsseldorf
On 18 and 20 October, Stefan Strumbel can be seen alongside Dare, Toast and Blek le Rat in Munich and Berlin. The 56-year-old Frenchman Blek le Rat is known internationally as the “Godfather of Stencil” and, alongside Banksy, is one of the most important figures in stencil art. On 24 October, Stefan Strumbel then opens his solo exhibition at Pretty Portal.
About the Artist
Stefan Strumbel was born in Offenburg in 1979, where he still lives and works. In the 1990s, he was active as a graffiti writer, and even then, traditional motifs found their way into his work.
“What the fuck is Heimat”
Stefan Strumbel
Opening
Friday, 24 October 2008, 7 – 11 pm
DJ Orson (Version)
Exhibition
24 October – 21 November 2008
Monday – Friday, 3 – 7 pm
Pretty Portal
Brunnenstraße 12
40223 Düsseldorf
Note (2026): Stefan Strumbel is now one of Germany’s best-known pop artists. Among other projects, he transformed the facade of Karlsruhe Palace into a giant cuckoo clock and designed the interior of a church in Kehl-Goldscheuer. The cuckoo clock “What the fuck is Heimat?” from 2008, with which Karl Lagerfeld had himself photographed, was offered at Sotheby’s in 2025 as part of the auction of his estate.
