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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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. "

Thomas Woll – Virtual Reality?

Düsseldorf, 28 November 2017. Today I am visiting the studio where the artist Thomas Woll lives. He is master student of Prof. Irmin Kamp at the Düsseldorf Academy. Considering Woll's work moves between room installations, architecture and sculpture, so I am expecting a correspondingly large studio. Thus, I am quite excited entering the top-floor apartment. But it is surprisingly tiny. At first, the purist decoration and the thrown-together furniture make you think of a student flat, not a studio ...
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Jan Albers – Making-of Making Breaking

Berlin-Kreuzberg, 7 October 2017. Rather than meeting Jan Albers in his Düsseldorf’ studio, I met him during the process of installing Making Breaking, his current solo show in Berlin. Although his sculptures have participated in many exhibitions in important museums in the Rhineland, as well as in the United States and Australia, Berlin had never hosted his artwork. This was just one of the reasons why curator and filmmaker Nicola Graef, known for her film Neo Rauch – Gefährten und Begleiter, to invite Albers to the German capital, where she developed a unique exhibition format for the show.
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Jan Glisman – When and where does existence begin?

Cologne-Mülheim. My present goal leads me to the site of former industrial halls, located directly on the banks of the Rhine. This is where Jan Glisman's studio is. The artist became particularly well-known through spectacular actions, by means of which he initiated unpredictable processes for his sculptural work. But more about that later...
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Fynn Ribbeck – About Cricket graves and scary dolls

Düsseldorf Art Academy: Today I’m visiting Fynn Ribbeck, my personal discovery from this year‘s academy tour. Since 2016 he’s been in Marcel Odenbach’s class, he previously studied with Rebecca Warren for two years. He plans to graduate at the end of next year. During the tour a kind of shrine cast a spell over me and wouldn’t let me go. I wanted to meet the artist responsible for this unusual sculpture ...

Helmut Schweizer – An energetic test field

Today I am visiting the concept, action, and installation artist Helmut Schweizer. In his search for cross-border boundaries in art, influenced by the art discourse of the 1970s, his work finds its aesthetic realisation in a wide range of different media and materials. The works of the documenta IX participant are regularly displayed in museums and are part of many international collections. His installations in particular awakened my curiosity, which were more reminiscent of scientific laboratories than situations in art exhibitions ...