Museumsverein Abteiberg (Museum Association Abteiberg) landed a truly sensational coup! At the occasion of the triple anniversary of 120 years Museumsverein/50 years annual gifts/40 years Museum Abteiberg 66(!) artists followed the Association’s unusual invitation to contribute to the creation of a HOMMAGE A MUSEUM ABTEIBERG, amongst them Andrea Bowers, Alexandra Bircken, Imi Knoebel, Thomas Rentmeister, Giuseppe Penone, Katharina Sieverding, Ulrich Rückriem, Monica Bonvicini, Jonathan Meese and Joanne Greenbaum. Thus sensational unique works of unbelievable diversity were created that are connected by only one common factor: A box measuring 28,0 x 33,5 x 2,5 cm – the same as the Grünen Schachtel by Marcel Duchamp from 1934 in the museum’s collection. Why a box? Where did the idea come from? How are the artworks presented? Under which conditions is the acquisition at a flat rate of 1.200 Euros possible? You can find all the answers here. Because, as a member of the advisory board I have been involved from the start ,)

Bad-Gastein. Is that an urn in the window and a coffin at the back of the shop? Nonsense, it’s probably simply a vase and a trunk. After all, an exhibition is about to be opened within the context of the sommer.frische.kust art festival. While I am still shaking my head at my own thoughts, I pause, in a mixture of feeling dumbfounded and astonished, when I hear the opening speech: “Xenia Lesniewski created a room installation here that moves between a concept store, funeral parlour and travel agency […].” Is that possible? – My past just flitted through my mind at high speed and links up with the here and now. For those, who didn’t know this yet: Before I got involved in art, I was an undertaker….

The impulse, or, rather, the incredible longing of wanting to visit this art festival, came over me in New York. Stressed by the hectic style of this city, in a stuffy, gloomy hotel room across a noisy construction site, I trawled through the current news in my Instagram account and got stuck on the following picture: Andrea von Goetz, barefoot, on a lush green meadow, sitting at a crystal clear stream, under an unbelievably blue sky, with greetings and the invitation to the sommer.frische.kunst. Festival in Bad Gastein in Salzburg County. And even if every New York afficionado now howls in protest: I wanted to be exactly there at exactly that minute.
A few weeks ago it finally happened. What a contrast: … (read more)

All Jan Glisman really wanted to do was to “just” document a spectacular event in Cologne: The demolition of all three parts of the 138-metre-high Deutsche Welle broadcasting tower, the third-highest building in the city. The funding had been approved, the plans worked out, but then – everything turned out quite differently. The risk to the broadcasting operations of Deutschlandfunk, which is connected by a common foundation slab, and the spread of asbestos fibres feared by residents in the neighbourhood had prevented the blasting. “Blasting” therefore became “deconstruction”. A process that was to extend over a total of five years and challenged Glisman to document precisely that period. Huge numbers of photos, video material and drawings were initially created without any concrete idea of what was to happen with them …

The imminent premiere of XERROX Vol. 2, a ballet for the music of the same name by Alva Noto, choreographed by Richard Siegal and performed by his company BALLET OF DIFFERENCE, was also a premiere for me. The attendance of the rehearsal and the subsequent conversation with Richard Siegal challenged me to get involved in contemporary ballet. To give you a heads up: I was immediately bowled over …

No matter if it is a DIOR campaign with Sharon Stone, Natalie Portman or Sophie Marceau, PORSCHE campaign with Patrick Dempsey or stylish stagings for editorial pictures in luxury magazines like VOGUE, ELLE or FLAUNT … it is always Frederic Auerbach who is responsible for those iconic images.

Born and raised in Switzerland, he was first drawn to Paris before his work finally took him to Los Angeles.

At the Sander Gallery in Düsseldorf, his photographs were presented in an art context for the first time. Beside the opportunity to talk to him about his life and work I was also given the chance to gain a practical impression of his photographic approach as a model afterwards …

It is only Angelika Kammann’s second collection since the founding of her label SOCIÉTÉ ANGELIQUE in 2020, but her garments already adorn covers such as ICON or FAZ Magazine and inspire customers at KaDeWe in Berlin or Gallery Gazette in Tokyo, the jury of the Berliner Salon …  and me! Why exactly? What makes her designs so special? I have the pleasure of accompanying her on her tour to the opening in Berlin, look over her shoulder during the fitting in her studio and the shooting of the new collection, and getting an in-depth impression of the world of fashion, especially her world of fashion. It quickly becomes clear why the word UTOPIA features in the titles of both collections…

Anybody travelling in the Rhineland and visiting the Upcoming artists exhibitions, is very likely to have come across his name. Whether the Antichambre in the Hotel Friends in Düsseldorf, Malkastenpark, MMIII Kunstverein Mönchengladbach, Quartier am Hafen Köln or Krefeld Kunstverein, you will find: Curated by Wilko Austermann. What exactly does a curator do? Or, to put it more accurately: How does Wilko Austermann personally define his responsibilities? We meet at MMIII Kunstverein Mönchengladbach, where he uses the example of Yoana Tuzharova’s Plasma soil exhibition, that he conceptualised, to talk about his main ideas. It becomes immediately obvious, that here we have a classic case of being able to differentiate between profession and vocation.

Dusseldorf. You want the most essential aspects of an artistic work visualized through a photostory? Say no more – on the occasion of Gregor Russ’ exhibition AS IF … Guaranteed reading time of less than two minutes ?

How can poetic art actually be explained? Strangely enough, not by using words. It comes through the senses. As so happened when l looked at the Instagram photos of Nathalie Vanheule. Even a short glance had sufficed to directly sense the emotional power of her works which move between performance, sculptures and video installations. Trying to discover this phenomenon, I am eagerly heading to Kortrijk in Belgium to meet the artist personally …