Armin Rohde – Stolen Light

There's a lot going on at Sander I Sohn Gallery in Düsseldorf: TV teams and journalists are holding the door open and passers-by are slowing down to take a closer look at the scene. In fact, it's Armin Rohde, one of Germany’s most famous actors, currently preparing his first exhibition of photography. And to answer the first question immediately: yes, he can take photographs with impressive aesthetics ...
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Johanna Keimeyer – Multimedia self-awareness

Berlin, Prenzlauer Berg. Oderberger Straße municipal swimming pool. This is the place where Johanna Keimeyer staged her spectacular dance performance, much talked about in the media, for the reopening of the renovated building. It is also the location where photographs of her series Pool Around, are installed throughout the entire complex. Here we start our tour through Berlin, a tour through the artist’s multimedia work . . .

Claus Richter – In front of the backdrop, behind the scenes …

Cologne, September 2018. How magical was the installation of his works at Art Cologne’s this year! I was fascinated by their playfully nostalgic, seemingly light-footed aesthetics; these figures, without exception, had awakened an almost childlike spirit of discovery in me. What was it about the devilish figures of the wall-work, holding the pendulum of the grandfather’s clock, grinning at me so provocatively? The wooden silhouette figures, on closer inspection, turned out to be anything but light-footed. Not only was a hand halted, but also time. A cut made for an end or a new beginning. Such interplay, disclosing profound stories against an apparently harmless backdrop, is typical of Claus Richter's art, as I will experience on my visit to the studio today ...

Eva und Adele – A total artwork from the future

Who hasn't seen them anywhere before? Their appearance simply attracts everyone's attention. Always dressed identically in bright, ladylike costumes, heavily made-up and with shaved heads, they usually only advance a few metres during their visits to the art fairs and events all over the world. All the time someone asks them for a photo. Since nearly 30 years you almost never hear them say "no". EVA & ADELE pose and smile - and that all the time. The smile is an essential component of their performance FUTURING, which dissolves any border between public and private. Only a few people know that this performance is accompanied by an impressive collection of paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, films and costumes and is represented in well-known museums and collections all over the world. The exhibition L'AMOUR DU RISQUE at me Collectors Room Berlin deals retrospectively with their complete work. An opportunity for me to meet them there ...

Matthias Wollgast – Genius Appropriation

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Markus Ambach – The city as a studio

Claudia Mann – The search for the origin of sculpture

Düsseldorf, 17 April 2018, Kunstgießerei Schmäke art foundry. Here I meet Claudia Mann, winner of the Düsseldorf Förderpreis für Bildende Kunst, a sponsorship for up-and-coming artists in the city. Her bronze casting "Solid Aero" is in its final stages. An unusual place to meet for a studio visit, given that at this stage the work of the artist is, in fact, mostly complete. Not so with Claudia Mann... I drive to the courtyard and witness the patination of a sculpture by Markus Lüpertz. I observe the process together with Claudia Mann, and am surprised by the speed at which the chemical process makes the bronze change its colour. "I absolutely had to get a look at this. I'm still gathering my options, you see, and want to understand the extent to which it's possible to leave the pure cast skin", she tells me, and we are abruptly in the middle of the topic at hand. "

Jürgen Klauke – From an observer to someone being affected or – What does my taste in art reveal about myself?

Cologne, 15th March 2018. A former warehouse painted with graffiti. How fitting is what I think when arriving. This is exactly how I imagined Jürgen Klauke's studio. The building is as unconventional as his art. He has been setting standards in the development of conceptual photography, body art and performance since the late 1960s. His oeuvre also includes an impressive collection of drawings. The series DR. MÜLLERS SEX-SHOP ODER SO STELL’ ICH MIR DIE LIEBE VOR gave me an initial impulse to examine his work. I have hardly ever experienced such discussions on art. Reactions varying from attraction to repulsion to shaking one's head or commenting "Oh! It's pretty weird. He must have taken a lot of drugs" to questioning whether I would hang up something like that at home.
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