In the last ten years, the Austrian-born artist Irene Andessner has been working on a new definition of the self portrait genre. Inspired by women´s portraits from past centuries, she first researches her chosen subjects in archives and libraries, only to enter into an alliance with them by means of photography, video and computer technology - as with, for instance, Nannerl Mozart, Frida Kahlo or Angelika Kauffmann. Andessner abducts these historical personages into the world of today, hands them a cell phone or a Polaroid camera. In 2001, Irene Andessner immersed herself into exploring the person and myth of Marlene Dietrich. A hundred years after the actress´ birth, Andessner investigated both her emotions and thinking, and thus, in the course of a few months, mentally and visually "transformed" herself into the actress. During the whole process she was accompanied by newspaper reporters and TV cameras from Wiener Casting to the Kölner Transvestitenbühne - all the way to the Berlin registry office, where she married a Mr. Dietrich in order to become "Mrs. Dietrich" officially. With this work and others, the book at hand features a representative selection of Andessner’s work. Exhibition Schedule: Stadthaus Ulm July 6 - August 31, 2003