As part of the INN SITU series, photographers focus on the Tyrol/Vorarlberg region.

Kurt Tong deals with belonging and collective identity. In KRAMPUS, folklore, cults of the dead and rituals are the central themes. His work blurs fiction and document, staging and historical research. Classic photography is supplemented with researched images, postcards are juxtaposed with pictures from private photo albums, newspaper pages are combined with elaborately designed, staged studio shots. Protocol and anecdote, factual report and fantasy story overlap in favor of a more complex narrative of reality. The Tyrolean commercial forest becomes the set for a horror film.

“I deliberately adopt the attitude of an unsuspecting person from another culture who approaches the phenomena of this custom from the outside. There are tons of documentaries about the Krampus, historical and contemporary footage. I didn’t want to compete with that. The longer I dealt with the subject, the more it became clear that the search for the intangible, the uncanny, is at the heart of the work. Yes, the uncanny must remain invisible.” (Kurt Tong)