IWAJLA KLINKE
“RUBRICATION – PROJECT PHILIPPINES”

This lecture is a dedication to Anita Beckers, who introduced us to Iwajla Klinke.

“Rubrication” is part of a large-scale research project on masculinity, devotion, pain and blood within urban youth culture. During Holy Week, in the Philippines the streets are filled with young boys staging performances of fashion, flagellation and flower coronations. In the end their backs are vermilion red, while their faces are veiled in blossoms and palm leaves.

Also recalling the connection between masculinity, blood and flowers within Greek mythology the portraits show young men who are both vulnerable and wounded, while displaying their wounds in their own individual ways.

Iwajla Klinke (*1976, Greifswald) studied Art History as well as Islamic and Jewish Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, where she graduated from in 2002. After working for several years as a writer and documentary filmmaker for European broadcasters such as Arte and 3sat, she has now fully dedicated herself to photography as an artistic practice.

Klinke’s work is characterized by a profound engagement with rituals, transitions, and the symbolic power of the body. Her portraits often depict children and adolescents dressed in traditional or ceremonial garments, frequently staged against deep black backgrounds. She explores how rituals shape identity, while also revealing the boundaries between gender, religion, and culture.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum Haus Löwenberg, Gengenbach (2018), Odon Wagner Gallery, Toronto (2019), Neue Galerie Gladbeck (2022), and the Diocesan Museum Freising (2025).

She lives and works in Berlin.

IWAJLA KLINKE“RUBRICATION – PROJECT PHILIPPINES”

IWAJLA KLINKE
“RUBRICATION – PROJECT PHILIPPINES”