Current
Upcoming
Fruchtbare Strukturen
Laboratory exhibition for networked thinking and action
Opening: Jan., 24., 7pm
The exhibition Fertile Structures examines the possibilities offered by networked production and consumption in the urban environment. It utilises the symbolic power of mushrooms and mycelia: they are both valuable sources of raw materials and sources of inspiration for networked thinking and action that can positively change the way we live together in the future. After all, individual ideas can often only unfold their full effect when they are linked together. To this end, artists and designers work together with scientists to develop sustainable practices and processes and experiment with new materials and forms. Their guiding principles are the circular economy and the common good.
Fertile Structures is a laboratory exhibition that invites visitors of all ages to join in, harvest and try things out.
The exhibition is a cooperation between Faculty 8, Industrial Design at the University of Wuppertal and the joint project transform.NRW – Shaping Sustainability with Art, Culture and Design, which is led by the Wuppertal Institute and the Faculty of Design and Art at the BUW. transform.NRW is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.
You can find the programme for the opening weekend (24.01. – 26.01.25) here
Curators of the exhibition:
Katharina Maderthaner (BUW) and Martina Fineder (BUW)
Participating students, artists, designers and scientists:
Linda Skellington
Hanna Hryshko, Yeji Lee, Christian Schreckenberger, Theodor Winter
Maria Wildeis
Fungi Orchestra (Larissa Bauer, Leonie Blum, Eric Dute, Sofiia Fedoriv, Evin Gecer, Anja Gronemann, Larissa Herweg, Julian Konrads, Shirley Lechtenböhmer, Louis Lenz, Joyce Lyttek, Salome Mattausch, Peppi Pelkonen, Florian Poulheim, Carolin Reiter, Esra Sophie Wittig, Philip Wistuba)
Rundschau, Industrial Design BUW students (Patrick Bauke, Lana Deleui, Dina El Makrini, Mohamed Gorbel, Ava Hansmann, Paula Herff, Leo Herringslack, Florian Kaufmes, Marten Koch, Hanna von Köver, Benedikt Kreißig, Lasse Kumm, Jörn Läpple, Linxun Li, Linus Micheel, Tobias Möller-Lindenhof, Bent Pollack, Philipp Roling, Christina Sessler, Birger Sendler, Maike Schiffler, Halit Tamer, Yang Wang, Leon Wagner, Helene Wicht together with Martina Fineder, Christa Liedtke, Felix Fastenrath and Katharina Maderthaner)
Stephan Engelke
Space for Sustainability by Design (Shahriar Assadi, Tom Baffi, Anke Bernotat, Rolf Brändle, Lucas Dieckmann, Steffen Hartwig, Katharina Herbrich, Lena Jean Jäger, Marius Land, Stefan Neudecker, Corinne Riepert, Judith Schanz, Judith Schlupkothen, Robert Schnüll (Artist / Designer in Residence), Johanna Schmeer, Lilli Malou Weinhold (Artist / Designer in Residence), Daniel Wilkens)
UWID Materiallabor, Andreas Kalweit
Studio Offsee (Simon Rummenhöller, Paul Bujak, Leo von Boetticher)
transform.NRW : Carolin Baedeker (WI), Eva Eiling (WI), Felix Fastenrath (BUW), Martina Fineder (BUW), Severin Hackspiel (WI), Kim Huber (WI), Katja Kremser (BUW), Christa Liedtke, Anica Luggen-Hölscher (WI), Katharina Maderthaner (BUW), Erica von Möller (BUW)
dform (Andreas Pawlik, Bernhard Poppe, Antonia Klimsza)
Students of the Master’s programme Strategic Product and Innovation Development (Jiaxin Gong, Albrecht Hegge, Lars Herzog, Marius Knipp, Finja Kösters, Luca Schouren, Yuliya Sobol together with Martina Fineder, Fabian Hemmert, Gert Trauernicht and Christa Liedtke)
Utopia City Wuppertal
Linda Nadji and students from the Faculty of Design & Art (Larissa Bauer, Leonie Blum, Eric Dute, Sofiia Fedoriv, Aylin Forneberg, Evin Gecer, Anja Gronemann, Larissa Herweg, Julian Konrads, Ben Joy Muin, Shirley Lechtenböhmer, Louis Lenz, Joyce Lyttek, Salome Mattausch, Peppi Pelkonen, Florian Poulheim)
Other actors*:
Josi Hartmann, Pia Schieren
Sebastian Bartel together with art education students (Svenja Biedenbach, Aylin Forneberg, Aaron Göke, Josi Hartmann, Laura Longerich, Ben Joy Muin, Hilal Oezer, Eva Rosen, Melissa Şerifoğlu, Lukas Ülger, Teresa Usai, Lasse Schimmelpferd, Georgina Leilani Wotte)
Guests of Zentrale-Verteiler-Bar
Christopn Westermeier and Lars Breuer with students of the BUW and Peter Behrens School of Arts, HSD Düsseldorf (Aylin Forneberg, Celine Weller, Chiara von Wille, Cindy Kästner, Eva Rosen, Kai, Laura Decken, Lina Haas, Lynn Schockenbäumer, Natascha Bayer, Paul Böse, Rabia Kübra Can, Tine Kloster, Vjosa Maxhuni)
Merle Ibach and Christoph Rodatz and PID students
LAB Möbel, Industrial Design BUW students (Ece Birdogdu, Emilia Engels, Hanna Feiertag, Jun Feld, Juli Goldenbaum, Mia Hermanns, Vincent Köberl, Semi Nazli, Martin Patt, Leonhard Quack, Anna S. Ronsdorf, Konstantinos Sampanis, Lauritz Scholz, Mathis Schüll, Angelina Tadumi, Laura Thomas, Ary Völker, Mats Wendel together with Katharina Maderthaner)
During the exhibition period, we offer a varied programme every week from Thursday to Sunday: for example, repair workshops can be attended, fabrics can be dyed with bacteria or mushrooms can be artfully preserved. Founders can examine the sustainability impact of their ideas together with the transform.NRW team and our art education team organises guided tours for different age groups and interests on request.
Fruchtbare Strukturen
Programme for the opening weekend
Programme opening weekend Fr., 24.01. – Su., 26.01.25
Programme for the opening weekend
Friday, 24.01.2025
19:00
Opening with greetings from Brigitta Wolff, Rector of the University of Wuppertal and Katja Pfeiffer, Director of Kunsthalle Barmen
Introduction to the exhibition Fertile Structures
with Katharina Maderthaner (curator and artist of the exhibition, Kunsthalle Barmen team) and Martina Fineder (curator of the exhibition and transform.NRW team)
20:00
Geschmacksarchiv (Taste archive) by Arpad Dobriban and opening of the Zentrale-Verteiler-Bar
20:30
Sound performance by Maria Wildeis & the Fungi Orchestra
Saturday, 25.01.2025
14:00
Opening speech and subsequent guided tour for families with children and young people
Katja Pfeiffer, Katharina Maderthaner and Martina Fineder
15:00
Performance CollectCollectivConnections, Linda Nadji and students of the BUW on Geschwister-Scholl-Platz
17:00
Guided tour through the exhibition with the Kunsthalle team, artists and designers of the exhibition
Sunday, 26 January 2025
14:00
Curator guided tour
Gastspiel
“hier” – a regional exhibition curated by “Freunde der Tat”
In the spring of each year, the Kunst und Museumsverein organises an exhibition in the Kunsthalle Barmen.
This tradition of giving visibility to Wuppertal’s artists, which has been in place for over a hundred years, will also be continued during the sponsorship of the Bergische Universität.
The regional exhibition in 2025 is entitled ‘hier:’ and will take place from 16 March to 13 April in the five rooms of the Kunsthalle Barmen.
The curatorial responsibility for the first biennial event has been placed in the hands of the ‘Freunde der Tat’.
The KHB is all the more pleased about the guest appearance as some graduates of our art degree programme have been selected for the exhibition.
However, the university will not be involved in the content or programme during the duration of this exhibition – we look forward to welcoming our cooperation partners back to the Kunsthalle and the LAB when we resume our mediation work as part of the next exhibition curated by us in April.
Recent
Isaac Chong Wai
Performance Falling Reversely (2021-2024), 16:00
The performance will be staged at the Kunsthalle Barmen for the finissage on 11 January.
Performance
Isaac Chong Wai, Falling Reversely
11 January 2025 at 4 pm
Kunsthalle Barmen
Conceptual artist Isaac Chong Wai (born 1990 in Hong Kong) works across different media, including performance, video, installation, photography and drawing. In his works, he examines contemporary global phenomena and transforms emotions, tensions and memories of human interactions into performative materiality and immersive experiences. At the boundary between the individual and the collective, he examines the vulnerability of the body and the inherent violence in social systems and historical traumas and imagines alternative microcosms of human relationships.
The performance Falling Reversey is currently being shown at the Venice Biennale. It is based on racist attacks in public spaces that many people of Asian descent, including the artist himself, have experienced. Falling Reversely is an attempt to reverse the movements of falling – a touching, solidary and empowering gesture.
The performance will be performed on 11 January at 4 pm in the Kunsthalle Barmen for the finissage of the exhibition Shared Spaces . Admission is free.
SHARED SPACES
The inaugural exhibition “Shared Spaces” unites museum space and urban space. The artistic works open up spaces for shared experience and empowerment, creating irritation and encouraging reflection.
Open: Thurs: 10:00-19:00; Fri. – Sun. 14:00-19:00
Special opening hours for performances and activities
The inaugural exhibition “Shared Spaces” unites museum space and urban space. The artistic works open up spaces for shared experience and empowerment, creating irritation and encouraging reflection. The exhibition moves between social cohesion and the impression to be thrown back on oneself, between the creation of an identity, speechlessness and the questioning of social norms and rituals. It invites the visitors to discover the strengths of communities and to meet other people in a new way. The invited artists include: Sonja Alhäuser, Francis Alÿs, Baltic Raw Org, Monica Bonvicini, Paul Budniewski, common ground, comp_zero, Antje Engelmann, Heiner Franzen, Ivana Franke, Alfredo Jaar, kinesic, Katerina Matsagkos, Rita McBride, Laure Prouvost, Michael Sailstorfer, Isaac Chong Wai and Raul Walch.
Fig.: Ivana Franke, Monica Bonvicini, common ground, Baltic Raw Org, Sonja Alhäuser, Heiner Franzen, Antje Engelmann, Alfredo Jaar, Laure Prouvost, Paul Budniewski, Isaac Chong Wai, 2024
Wuppertal 24h live
Sneak Preview: First insights into the Kunsthalle Barmen with guided tour, workshop & artist talk
We are delighted to be able to present the first insights into the Kunsthalle Barmen.
We are delighted to be able to present the first insights into the Kunsthalle Barmen. The exhibition venue will reopen on 18 October 2024 with the inaugural exhibition ‘Shared Spaces’. During 24h Wuppertal live, we cordially invite all interested parties to take a first look behind the scenes.
Prof. Isabelle Meiffert, Artistic Director of the Kunsthalle, will kick off the event on 13 September at 4 pm with a guided tour of the first artistic works. Afterwards, at 4.30 pm, there will be a creative workshop for children aged five and over. Here, the young participants can design marzipan sculptures under guidance, which will be part of the ‘Welcome Barmen Banquet’ by artist Sonja Ahlhäuser in October.
On 14 September at 10:30 a.m., there will be an artist talk with Prof. Katja Pfeiffer and Lena Rüschmann, who will be showing a video work on questions as a form of communication in the LAB. The work will then be expanded to include questions from visitors to the event. At 1 pm, Katja Pfeiffer will present ideas and possibilities for the LAB at Kunsthalle Barmen as a new teaching and learning centre for contemporary art education.
We look forward to welcoming numerous visitors!
Friday, September 13
16:00 Guided tour with curator Isabelle Meiffert
16:30 Creative workshop for young guests aged 5 and over
Saturday, September 14
10:30 am Talk with Katja Pfeiffer and Lena Rüschmann
13:00 Presentation of the new Kunsthallen “Lab” with Katja Pfeiffer
Fig.: Sonja Alhäuser, 2016