Charles Wilp

Charels Wilp died on the 2.January 2005 in his house in Düsseldorf. We were proud to work with this outstanding aritst and artonaut. In rememberence we present you the Charles Wilp Fotogalery.

Charles Wilp

Cola highs to cosmic orgasms - Charles Wilp's definition of his own career. Born in the 30s to a pianist and a grain trader, he inherited both inspiration and a sense for business acumen.These qualities were to be brilliantly combined in the future. On finishing school at the Francois Xaver's Jesuit high school in Berlin, he studied art and influential psychology. His path led him to New York where he studied photography under Man Ray at the elite Raymond Loewys school. During the 50s, he became part ofthe Copsy Circle and was initiated into the secrets of biofeedback, bioclimatics and sexology.
Through his family, Wilp enjoyed continuous contact with early space pioneers - such as Werner von Braun who he met at an American rocket base. The encounter gave him the idea for his notorious Afri-Cola advertising - Charles Wilp smiled through a crystal-covered glass door of the cold room at a Pin-up-Girl - the 'super sexy mini flower pop op cola' was born. The novelty of the innovative Afri-Cola High left the whole advertising branch aghast. Wilp succeeded by breaking away from all conventional advertising ideals of those times, risking the use of such words as 'spaced out' in his slogans.
He further risked his pilot's licence when flying dangerously low along the Düsseldorf Königsalle for a Puschkin vodka advertisement. His sports car, the 'White Orchid' was also the centre of interest when he drew attention to environmental pollution caused by cars - by exploding it and then hanging it as a wall sculpture.
Ikons such as Yves Klein, Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys belonged to his sincerest admirers - some later becoming friends. His romance with travel over the years became focused in the ufo he built on the roof of his Rhineside home in Wittlaer near Düsseldorf. This is now used as a chill-out station by researchers in the Arctic. Wilp himself finds his higher self when training as a astronaut. As of April 4 1995, his first day at 40,000 feet above earth in the Orbitec Zero-G training shuttle, he believes that a new age began for humanity when man set foot on the moon - a new dawn was in the reckoning. The man who once blessed the German nation with a high, is the only living artist who, while zapped out at high altitude, was able to experience a state that probably only Rubens and Michelangelo encountered, as exemplified by the flying beings in the Sistine Chapel. This remained no secret to Wilp who projected photos of floating people in one of Michelangelo's paintings, referring to the work as 'Michelangelo auf der Mir``, which will also be available on the cover of the remix CD 'Michelangelo in Space`.
Wilp considers weightlessness the mega sensory MERKWELT (reminder of the world ),-the motor of all creative urges. He replaces canvas, oil-based paints and varnish with magma-materials of the present, such as high quality satellite foil-film (eg Stycast), a slippery see-through mass which he uses to seal his works of art. His creations regularly take off via the Shuttle directed to and returning from MIR, as signed space art pieces.
Some of his works remain as 'permanente Documenta' floating in the cosmos.The climax of his cosmic art has been his processing of remnants of the 'Cluster' satellite on board the Ariane 5. This sculpture is a homage to the space age philospher H.G. Wells with the title 'no rest - no ending'. One can only reflect on this name wondering where Charles Wilp's next high flying mission will take him. On the communication front, his controversial goal is already defined. In the future, C.W. will be working on starting the first space agency. Caffeine will no longer be a necessity for art directors and artists on board the culture module of the initiated ISS space station. According to Wilp, the best ideas will result from microgravity. And to defy all prophecies of doom, the most important part of his dreams is about to become reality. On New Year's Eve 2000, Charles Wilp will be rocketing away to conquer space - as an astronaut in zero G.