The toxic building – How Jan Glisman turned the deconstruction of the Deutsche Welle towers into a multimedia art project

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 ...

“But, initially, it does not claim to be anything, just itself.” Gregor Russ through a photostory portrait …

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 ?

Ardan Özmenoglu – All wonderful

It is indeed absolutely wonderful to stand in front of Ardan Özmenoglu's front door in Istanbul. Surreal is perhaps even better. Just three weeks ago, she spontaneously invited me to her studio at her exhibition opening with the above title at Galerie Anna Laudel in Düsseldorf. And now I'm here. Am I even right? In a mix of English and sign language, I had communicated with the taxi driver and now hope that he hasn’t left me somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The bell sign "hello I'm art" is already reassuring. Address seems to be correct. But unfortunately, no one opens. The tension rises again ...
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Alfonso Hüppi – The confrontation with the inside, the outside, and the trappings

Where do you start and stop? When do you have the chance to talk to an artist whose work is as complex, extensive and significant as his? Alfonso Hüppi is one of the most important representatives of post-war avant-garde and post-modernism, and is as gifted a painter as he is a sculptor, draftsman and graphic artist. My initial idea of trying to narrow down my questions fails with his answer to whether there is a group of works, or creative period, that is particularly close to his heart. "No. Somehow everything has a story and is therefore significant to me", making it immediately clear that one can only approach this Œuvres by talking precisely about these stories.

Bernhard Martin – Between Disney and Tarantino

All the clichés of a bohemian fit the artist. Since he was fifteen, Bernhard Martin has given free rein to his sheer unbridled thirst for adventure. Unconventionally and excessively, he follows his ideas about art. Gambling, drug use, counterfeiting, or life on the streets, simply belonged to his way of life; because "pushing the limits of society" means art to him. Therfore, you can find very unique visual worlds in his compositions, which are represented in the most prominent art collections in the world, such as MoMa in New York or the Arario Museum in Seoul, and his work is regularly presented in equally prominent exhibition spaces ...

Manuela Knaut – The beauty of the overlooked

Brunswick. Yes! That's exactly how I had imagined it. I think, as I enter Manuela Karin Knaut's studio. A mix of paint buckets, paint tubes, spray bottles, oil chalk, wooden slats, canvases, photographs, paper rolls, foils, indefinable odds and ends, and of course splashes of color everywhere you look, reflect the explosive nature of her work in absolutely every corner of the room. Here in this studio there are mixed, stirred and layered materials that have been experimented with. Knaut is one of the most successful artists in the increasingly assertive online art market. Her works, which are now sold in almost every continent, reveal elements of both street art and "objet trouvé" (found objects turned into art) ...

Marlon Red – In pursuit of the undiscovered form

Düsseldorf. In the history of art, the idea of the absolute concentration on the interaction of form and colour – while refraining from any representationalism – is not new. My visit with Marlon Red shows me the fact and reason why this continues to be topical and exciting. A quick look at her paintings and drawings is enough for me to realise her passionate joy of experimenting, which is inherent in each one of her works. Her picture motifs in ever new spatial situations which she is able to design in infinite compositions of lines and colour, applied and processed on the most diverse image carriers, provide surprise upon surprise.

Carolin Eidner – Lasting impact …

Berlin, Dusseldorf. There are exhibitions which – although they succeed in immediately causing the viewer to react emotionally – irritate, and stimulate a closer involvement only when reflecting on them. This happened at the visit to the solo show of Carolin Eidner at Galerie Aurel Scheibler in Berlin.