Leo Köppen

Works

Paintings and large works on paper, all shown in their true size relative to one another. Each exists only once. The pointer is a lamp: move it over a picture and the paint and brushwork show. A click opens it enlarged. The light sits in the middle of the screen and moves across the pictures as you scroll. A tap opens a picture enlarged.

Works up to 60 cm wide are sent by post, packed flat and rigid; shipping within Germany is €15. Canvases 80 cm wide or more can be collected from the studio in Leipzig or travel with an art transport service; please enquire.

Film

Short films, music videos and recordings. Pick a cassette: the recorder pulls it in and the film plays on the television. Only then is it loaded from Vimeo.

Music

As The Woman Inside, Leo Köppen has released four studio albums, somewhere between darkwave, trip-hop and industrial. A click on a cover loads the player from Bandcamp.

Press

You’ll never fit The Woman Inside into one single category, which is certainly part of the appeal of this intensely stylistic sound.

Sleeping Bag Studios, 8 May 2018, on “Attention Babe” Read the review

The artist’s vocal performance in “The Woman Inside” is raw, gritty, emotional, and poignant.

The Bandcamp Diaries, 29 April 2018, on the album “The Woman Inside” Read the review

… brings a disturbing edge to soft pink, with music and performance by German recording artist The Woman Inside.

SHOWstudio, 4 October 2019, on “The Golden Tree” by Bart Hess Watch the film at SHOWstudio

Also

since 2018: Music performance “The Woman Inside”, live on stage and in the theatre
2021: Single “Let’s Clit It”, released ahead of the double album Red Room and Blue Room
2019: “The Woman Inside live at WGT 2019”, live music video
2009–2010: two albums under the name Mark Schwarz: “Clean Peach” and “Schwarz ist weiß” (Black Is White)

All albums on Bandcamp

Stage

Theatre and performance in Leipzig, at the Cammerspiele and the Ost-Passage Theater: as performer, musician and director. Before that, performances in public space and at Gaswerk Weimar.

Performances in Weimar

2017: “Ich bin John Lennon” (I Am John Lennon), Theaterplatz Weimar
2015: “I Love U Leo Köppen”, Weimar city centre and the grounds of the Bauhaus-Universität
2015: “Die Sorgen der Kleinen Zwiebel, Teil 2” (The Sorrows of the Little Onion, Part 2), Gaswerk Weimar
2014: “Siegfried & Freud”, Gaswerk Weimar
2014: Jury member at the Backup Festival Weimar, as a performance at the Lichthaus Kino

Ex Ovo Nova

A first-person game: islands at night, a chapel, a red room and a single golden tadpole. The same works as on this site hang in its gallery, and you can buy them there.

About Leo Köppen

Leo Köppen, born in Berlin in 1991, lives in Leipzig. He draws, paints, makes films and makes music. He studied media art and fine art at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and worked as a hypnotherapist for nine years.

In his drawings naked figures stand close together, with too many heads, with swords, pliers and animals. You cannot tell whether they are holding each other or holding each other down. The line is fast and takes nothing back.

The films, the songs and the nights on stage come from the same room as the drawings. They are about what you feel before there is a word for it, and about what you would rather not show. Nothing is explained.

Vimeo Bandcamp First Person Studio

Chronology

2026
- FilmShort film “Cosmic Cord”, in the programme of the Atlanta Experimental Film Festival
2025
- StageOst-Passage Theater Leipzig, on the team for artistic processes on and behind the stage
2024
- Stage“TV Total Banal”, Ost-Passage Theater Leipzig
2023
- MusicAlbum “Flood The River” as The Woman Inside
- Stage“Tote Hamster in Miami” (Dead Hamsters in Miami), Cammerspiele Leipzig, co-direction and band
- Stage“Für Papa” (For Dad), Ost-Passage Theater Leipzig, music
- Performance“Die 100 Leute Show” (The 100 People Show), four hours without a break
2021
- MusicDouble album “Red Room” and “Blue Room”
- Stage“Dead Whore”, Cammerspiele Leipzig, co-direction, performance and music
- Stage“Chickenfilet mit Rosé” (Chicken Fillet with Rosé), Cammerspiele Leipzig, acting
2020
- ArtDrawing series “choral studies”, acrylic and watercolour, until 2021
2019
- Film“The Golden Tree”, directed by Bart Hess, music and performance by The Woman Inside, shown at SHOWstudio
- Music“The Woman Inside live at WGT 2019”, live music video
- ArtPainting series “tongue & milk”, acrylic and watercolour, until 2020
2018
- MusicMusic performance “The Woman Inside”, ongoing since then
- PressReviews by Sleeping Bag Studios and The Bandcamp Diaries
2017
- EducationBachelor of Fine Arts, media art and design, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
- Musicfirst album as The Woman Inside, also on vinyl
- FilmFeature film “take me down”
- Performance“Ich bin John Lennon” (I Am John Lennon), Theaterplatz Weimar
2016
- FilmShort film “my strange and dark desire”
2015
- Performance“I Love U Leo Köppen”, Weimar city centre and the grounds of the Bauhaus-Universität
- Performance“Die Sorgen der Kleinen Zwiebel, Teil 2” (The Sorrows of the Little Onion, Part 2), Gaswerk Weimar
2014
- Performance“Siegfried & Freud”, Gaswerk Weimar
- FestivalJury member at the Backup Festival Weimar, as a performance at the Lichthaus Kino
- MusicAlbum “My Tears Are Waiting For You” under his own name
2013
- ExhibitionVideo installation “Jesus ist Einsam” (Jesus Is Lonely), Gaswerk Weimar
- Magazine“Haar & Fusz” (Hair & Foot), drawings and text, 300 copies, with an exhibition at Gaswerk Weimar
- FilmFeature film “Die Leo Köppen Show”
- WorkHypnotherapist in Neuruppin, Weimar and Leipzig, until 2020
2012
- Workself-employed as a filmmaker, musician, music producer, performance artist and actor; founding of Leosarts
- Magazine“Sind wir Scheisze?” (Are We Shit?), drawings and text in fineliner and typewriter, 300 copies
2011
- FilmShort film “Das Welt-Dilemma” (The World Dilemma), broadcast on MDR
2009
- Music“Clean Peach” and, in 2010, “Schwarz ist weiß”, two albums as Mark Schwarz
1991
- Lifeborn in Berlin-Mitte

Contact

For purchases, exhibitions, commissions and questions about individual works. Write using the form or directly by email.

leo-koeppen@posteo.de

Studio: Kreuzstraße 24, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Visits by appointment.