Klaus Böhm on Art

What does art mean to me? For me, art is not merely an aspect of my life or a marginal interest which I foster by visiting exhibitions and museums. Art means much more to me. If you will, it pervades my entire being, my thoughts and my personal actions. My life is art. That is why I call myself an artist of living – and the world is my canvas. I have always been interested in the way the world is presented to those who experience or consume it.

That is where I position myself as an entrepreneur. I shape the world by creating rooms and atmospheres. My entrepreneurial occupation means more to me than mere profit maximization. In fact, I see my activities as an artistic process. I create a work into which I - just like an artist onto canvas - let all of my heart’s blood flow, using artistic forms of expression. The first presentation of Liquid Sound® in Apolda is a perfect example of that. Using a lot of smoke and dry ice, we created an installation that was unique at that time. The idea was inspired by the urge to create something that had not been done even in New York. Consequently, the U.S. artists were shocked. But this is exactly what drives me and my actions: creating something new, turning the undiscovered into reality, and astonishing the world.

Ultimately, everything I am and do falls into place into a large social installation. An installation of extreme complexity which combines its fragments in a highly diverse fashion. This idea is also reflected in my essence. If you will, I work on myself as I would work on an artistic endeavour. There are so many ideas, influences, fragments and aspects that are slumbering within my self. Put together, they make up a total work of art that dwells inside me. Therefore, I am not only an artist – I am also a work of art. For this reason, I am employee and employer at the same time. I give myself the task to present and perfect my life in the course of an artistic process.

My deep affection for art and my passion for the creative motivate my activities as a curator and art collector. If my entire life is shaped by art, what would be more obvious than to regard the Toskanaworld company as an artistic space? This concept implies two levels of meaning: on the one hand, the buildings belonging to the company are transformed into a gallery by decorating its walls with pictures of various artists. On the other hand, the company itself becomes a work of art. In this context, I am thinking, above all, about the Toskana Thermen (thermal baths), their unique architectural characteristics, and the interplay of light, water and sound which creates a very special atmosphere – an atmosphere which, in turn, has become the subject of new works of art, as the photographs of Linda Troeller impressively demonstrate.