Exhibitions

Amid turbulent times, we turn our attention to the delicate and vulnerable. With fragile and pensive works as well as ones that bristle with nervous energy, the exhibition probes the feeling of defenselessness and finds remarkable strength in creative stances that squarely confront the fact that human bodies and human-built orders are sensitive and open to attack. By turning the spotlight on their own and others’ vulnerabilities, the works in the exhibition create moments of empathy and allow us to touch on entrenched frontlines.

In the gallery’s street-facing windows, Chto Delat (RU) present 16 semaphore flags, a format they have borrowed from ocean shipping (2024). But the matching legend makes no reference to rules of navigation—the flags indicate states of mind, sending personal messages of exhaustion, self-care, and furious anger. All members of the Russian collective Chto … read more

KOW Berlin

With Anna Boghiguian, Candice Breitz, Marco A. Castillo, Alice Creischer, Chto Delat, Heinrich Dunst, Anna Ehrenstein, Peter Friedl, Sophie Gogl, Clegg & Guttmann, Barbara Hammer, Hiwa K, Simon Lehner, Renzo Martens, Oswald Oberhuber, Mario Pfeifer, Santiago Sierra, Michael E. Smith, Franz Erhard Walther, curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

And so there it falls into the funnel of meaning-making, the work of art, sucked in by the process in which media, politics, and society manufacture opinions. Faster and faster it corkscrews downward, the work of art, toward the one point that is its inevitable destination, the one possible exit: there it comes! Yes, there it is. The message.

We’ve heard a lot in 2022 about which message works of art send, what they mean to say and do. Squeezed like lemons … read more

KOW Berlin

Clegg & Guttmann and Franz Erhard Walther

People need rules. Following rules is a social, political, and economic imperative. We like some and resent others; we make them, bend them, break them. The three artists we present have long investigated how rules operate, how they exert power over us, as well as how to understand them better, game them, or come up with new ones. They have different perspectives on rules and ideas on how to mold, twist, or dismantle them. But they share a critical and playful approach to what we might call the snares of participatory cultures, lured by the democratic promise of autonomy within the norms established by a society that has institutionalized mutual support. If you’re a fan of the concept of social participation, the exhibition is an entertaining study in how this … read more

KOW Berlin

With Alice Creischer, Dierk Schmidt, Michael E. Smith, Brandlhuber+, Larissa Fassler, Adelita Husni-Bey, Peng!, Andrea Pichl, Andreas Siekmann, Bárbara Wagner & Benjamin de Burca, Weekend & Plaste, curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

It would be funny if it weren’t so sad: humans invented cities so they could live safe and self-determined lives together and fend off assaults from outsiders—and now they find themselves conned and disempowered in the heart of their cities and hustled to the peripheries. By neo-feudal mega-schemes, global corporations, real-estate speculators, and other trojans. And, lest we forget, the true local patriots, the nationalist street sweepers, have gotten in on the hustling.

The city is no longer safe for its citizens. Not because … read more

Fluentum Collection Berlin

With Patty Chang, Frank Heath, Hiwa K, Adelita Husni-Bey, Sven Johne, Ferhat Özgür, Stefan Panhans, Martin Skauen, Hito Steyerl, Vibeke Tandberg, Ignacio Uriarte, Katarina Zdjelar, curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

Moving images are the principal medium of the present. Videos, films, 3D animations, virtual worlds are also the defining formats of contemporary art. The political dimensions of our own lives, social challenges, cruelties ancient and recent, the great questions of who we are and who we might yet be—all these manifest themselves with unrivaled lucidity on the screens and monitors that are the visual signature of this time of wrenching changes.

But moving images do not just show—they also speak. It hardly needs to be said that films are essentially works of … read more

KOW Berlin

With Alice Creischer, Henrike Naumann, Mario Pfeifer, Michael E. Smith, Tobias Zielony, curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

In light of recent events, KOW has changed its programming on very short notice and put together an exhibition to throw a spotlight on the swing to the right in Germany. The gallery and the contributing artists want to take a stance at a time when political—and, for more and more people, everyday—life is turning into a nightmare. We want to stand with all those who fight back against this development.

In its more lucid moments, the public debate over the new tip of the radical right-wing iceberg—Chemnitz, Saxony—touches on the insight that the social discord that has erupted and the neo-national mindset behind it are intolerable but by … read more

KOW Berlin

With Chto Delat, Alice Creischer, Eugenio Dittborn, Heinrich Dunst, Barbara Hammer, Ramon Haze, Hiwa K, Renzo Martens, Chris Martin, Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger, Mario Pfeifer, Dierk Schmidt, Tina Schulz, Michael E. Smith, Franz Erhard Walther, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Tobias Zielony, curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

Most art stays in the dark. It slumbers in storage, rests in graphic-art cabinets, enjoys the climate-controlled environment in free port warehouses and museum basements, or catches dust up in the attic. Now and then a few pieces come to light, but what feels like 90 percent of the art in public and private collections is under lock and key, most of it permanently.

KOW is no exception to the rule, though the art we keep at … read more

Bergen Kunsthall, Norway Bunkier Sztuki Kraków, Poland

With Arthur Cravan, Lee Lozano, Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden, curated by Alexander Koch

It was a stroke of luck for me that the Art Hall Bergen had an ambitious program, reconstructing historical exhibitions (series "NO.5" thanks to Martin Clark and Steinar Sekkingstad). I was invited to fully restore and show my exhibition from 2002, which had been so important to me but had attracted little audience in Leipzig. I still had the data on old DVs – in fact, the exhibition had consisted almost entirely of reproductions, copies, and text panels. To my surprise, the reconstruction looked almost identical. From Bergen, the exhibition traveled to Krakow. The spatial conditions there were very different, so I improvised a new hanging arrangement on site. … read more

KOW Berlin

Curated by Alexander Koch

The events of recent months have confronted the Russian artist collective Chto Delat with a changed reality: “A new Cold War atmosphere, an escalating search for enemies, ever-tighter repression of all dissent, and an open military confrontation with Ukraine leaving thousands of dead on both sides.”(1) Now the Saint Petersburg-based Chto Delat (the name means “What Is to Be Done?”) explore “what art could be at a moment when familiar politics and everyday life start falling apart (…) audiences vanish, activist groups implode and actually getting anything done becomes impossible.”

They conclude: “We lost. We are excluded from this society, in which 80 percent of the population supports the war.” In their first exhibition at KOW – a modified version of their … read more

KOW Berlin

Built structures (architecture and urban planning) shape social relations, and they present an unambiguous trend: homogenization. Urban environments that used to be shared or that would have lent themselves to sharing in the future are now being subdivided into the niches of social Darwinism. Like and like congregate on urban islands clearly staggered according to income classes.

In Berlin, where heterogeneity was once a defining feature of the urban fabric, it is especially evident that the reorganization of the city serves the redistribution of participation in social life: a wealthy clientele takes possession of the central areas around prestigious new residential developments, displacing to the periphery all those who cannot, or do not want to, keep upping the ante. Social archipelagos … read more

KOW Berlin

With Alice Creischer, Chto Delat, Barbara Hammer, Frédéric Moser & Philippe Schwinger, Michael E. Smith, Franz Erhard Walther, Tobias Zielony, Zanny Begg, Joseph Beuys, Arno Brandlhuber, Ines Doujak, Philippe Halsman, Adrian Piper, Pussy Riot, Christoph Schlingensief, Andreas Siekmann, Santiago Sierra, Andreas Slominski, Sean Snyder Curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

The right to blasphemy should become a human right. The special right to the protection of religious sentiments, by contrast, should not. Trampling on such feelings is not a very empathetic thing to do, but the fact that they seem to be particular sensitive is not the fault of those who do not share that sensitivity.

Everyone is free to keep Golden Calves in the privacy of … read more

KOW Berlin

Curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

The documentary and experimental films of Barbara Hammer are considered among the earliest and most extensive representations of lesbian identity, love, and sexuality.

To date, Hammer’s work has received little attention from the art world. Yet film retrospectives at New York’s MoMA (2010) and the Tate Modern, London, (2012) are now recalling the artist, who was born in Hollywood in 1939, as a pioneer of queer cinema who made decisive contributions to feminism and gay liberation as well as avant-garde cinema and performance art. On the occasion of Hammer’s eighth participation in the Berlin International Film Festival, we are pleased to present the first ever-solo show of her work, with a focus on the 1970s. … read more

KOW Berlin

Curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

In Cady Noland and Santiago Sierra, we are bringing two artists together who regard social violence not as a departure from social normality but as an expression of the normative form of rule and economic system we all implicitly support: capitalism and liberalism. That has not always made their art easily digestible to the public.

In the 1980s, Noland provoked observers by denouncing the myth of the self-determination of US-Americans and their love of freedom as an imperialist gesture. Sierra was accused of criticizing the humiliating instruments of capitalist domination by merely mirroring them in his own artistic practice, effectively turning the victims of social violence into victims also of his art and inflicting a second humiliation on … read more

KOW Berlin

Curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

The work of Franz Erhard Walther has attracted critical attention since the mid 1960s. It becomes increasingly apparent not only how much he contributed to the development of an action-oriented concept of art in the second half of the 20th century, but also how his position continues to serve younger artists as inspiration.

The notion that one is permitted to look at art but not touch it, that there is some impregnable boundary between a work of art and our physical selves, our demeanor, our social roles, continues to provoke opposition. Walther was one of the forerunners in this protest, an exponent of a relational aesthetic avant la lettre, one that takes into account the physical nature of the work of art on a substantial level. … read more

KOW Berlin

With Ramon Haze, Mario Pfeifer, Tina Schulz, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Tobias Zielony, Peggy Buth, Famed, Markus Dressen, Andreas Grahl, Henriette Grahnert, Eiko Grimmberg/ Arthur Zalewski, Mark Hamilton, Ramon Haze, Oliver Kossack, Claudia Annette Maier, Ulrich Polster, Julius Popp, schau-vogel-schau (Marcel Bühler, Alexander Koch), Julia Schmidt, Tilo Schulz, spector cut+paste, Christoph Weber, curated by Alexander Koch and Nikolaus Oberhuber

20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we sum up the development of conceptual and socially oriented art in Leipzig since the end of the nineties. Three consecutive exhibitions bring together 28 artists, graphic designers and collectives. We call for a nuanced discussion on the societal change and its artistic resonance in the second decade after … read more

KOW Berlin

Mit Franz Erhard Walther, kuratiert von Alexander Koch und Nikolaus Oberhuber

KOW ISSUE 1 shows the 11-Meter-Bahn, one of the most prominent objects from Franz Erhard Walther’s 1. Workset – developed between 1963 and 1969 and a classic among the German post-war art – and portrays the history of its utilization. Walther proposed to no longer conceptualize art independently from its application by a public and assign its users co-authorship on the form and meaning of artworks. He became an early exponent of process-related and participatory art.

Walther’s proposal is still a design to counter the habitual way of dealing with art, which is to seek for the aesthetic and the economic value of an art piece in its “out-standing” object quality or peculiarity, rather than in the social … read more

Kunstraum B/2, Leipzig

Mit Peggy Buth, Chat, Bertram Haude, Evelyn Jahns, Stephanie Kiwitt, Hans-Christian Lotz, Thomas Lüer, Regine Müller-Waldeck, Julius Popp, Michael Schade, Sascha Schniotalla, Tina Schulz, Andreas Schulze, Jens Volz, Christoph Weber, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Arthur Zalewski, kuratiert von Alexander Koch und Ulrike Kremeier

Die Konstruktion von Raum ist elementare Praxis, als grundlegende Kategorien alltäglichen Lebens ebenso wie in der künstlerischen Produktion. Die Weisen der Konstruiertheit des Räumlichen sind Konstitutiven der Wahrnehmung von Identität und Differenz. Raum schaffen meint, die relationalen Gefüge bestimmen, in denen soziale, diskursive , urbane, ästhetische Wirklichkeit wie auch deren Repräsentation stattfindet: Dispositive subjektiven und gesellschaftlichen Handelns. … read more

Galerie der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig

Projektleitung: Beatrice von Bismarck, Alexander Koch und Marion von Osten (Leipzig, Berlin, Zürich) Mit Sabine Falk, Britt Schlehahn, Sascha Schniotalla, Inga Schwede, Spector cut+paste, Regine Mueller­-Waldeck, Juliane Wenzl, u.a.

Kreativität wird heute von diversen gesellschaftlichen Institutionen und Interessengruppen als ein zentrales Vermögen ­zunehmend aber auch als eine zentrale Anforderung ­ in entscheidenden Bereichen des privaten wie beruflichen Lebens dargestellt. Ob in Lifestyle­Magazinen, in Managementkonzepten oder bei der Umstrukturierung der Arbeitsmarkt­ und Bildungspolitik: Kreativität ­ als eine von jedem Menschen aktivierbare individuelle Ressource ­ wird konstruiert als ein Versprechen darauf, das eigene Glück und den persönlichen Erfolg selbst in die Hand nehmen zu können ­ und zu müssen. Ich­ AG … read more

Galerie der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig

Mit Clemens von Wedemeyer, Juliane Wenzl, Ingo Vetter, Annette Weiser, Michaela Schweiger, Alice Creischer, Andreas Siekmann, Regine Müller­ Waldeck, Marion von Osten, Fath Wilding

Das produktivistische Verständnis von „Arbeit“ wird in den letzten Jahren zunehmend durch einen Arbeitsbegriff ersetzt, der konzeptionelle Prozesse, kreatives Denken und persönliche Flexibilität in den Mittelpunkt rückt. In dem Maße wie dabei die Selbstverwaltung der eigenen Arbeitskraft zur Schlüsselqualifikation wird, gewinnen künstlerische Arbeitsprozesse Vorbildfunktion für ökonomische Zusammenhänge. Die Ausstellung und die sie begleitenden Veranstaltungen, die sich aus der Zusammenarbeit von Andreas Siekmann mit dem /D/O/C/K Projektbereich entwickelten, stellten Fragen nach den Konsequenzen einer solchen Verschiebung innerhalb der „Konstruktion … read more

Galerie der HGB Leipzig

Mit Arthur Cravan, Lee Lozano, Bas Jan Ader, Chris Burden

Mit KUNST VERLASSEN #1 / Gestures of Disappearance realisiert Alexander Koch als freier Kurator für die Galerie der HGB eine historische Themenausstellung, die vier internationale KünstlerInnen vorstellt und diskutiert, Arthur Cravan (1887–­1918 ?), Lee Lozano (1930–­­1999), Bas Jan Ader (1942­–1975) und Chris Burden (*1946).

Die Ausstellung zeichnet die Gesten und Haltungen von vier DeserteurInnen nach, die im politischen Klima der 1910er sowie der späten 1960er und frühen 70er Jahre die Festschreibungen der eigenen künstlerischen Handlungsräume aus der Fassung brachten. Ihr Handeln hatte dabei Anteil an der Sichtbarwerdung jener Zonen und Augenblicke, an deren Rändern die Kunst auszufransen beginnt. Aus retrospektiver Sicht sucht die … read more

Galerie im Parkhaus Berlin

Mit Arthur Zalewski und Jean Luc Godard, Herbert Bayer, Catherine David, Beatrice von Bismarck, kuratiert von Alexander Koch

Dem Medium Ausstellung sind stets historische, institutionelle und architektonische Imperative immanent. Diesen begegnete die Ausstellungsproduktion »Levels #4 – Arthur Zalewski«, indem sie den Ausstellungsraum der Galerie im Parkhaus Treptow, Berlin, als einen spezifisch codierten Handlungsraum zu formulieren suchte, in dem sich verschiedne Techniken und Taktiken der Inszenierung und der Exponierung abbilden ließen – und mit diesen zugleich auch die wechselseitigen Erwartungshaltungen und Rollenzuschreibungen innerhalb des Akteursvierecks Künstler-Kurator-Publikum-Institution.

Arthur Zalewski wurde von mir eingeladen als ein Künstler … read more

Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst Leipzig

Mit Frank Berger, Helmuth Berking, Nathan Coley, Waltraud Kokot, Martina Löw, Gitte Villesen, kuratiert von Alexander Koch, Stefanie Sembill und Tilo Schulz

Globalisierung. Kaum ein Schlagwort verkörpert besser, was den gesellschaftlichen Wandel der vergangenen Jahrzehnte auszeichnet. Kaum ein Thema, das den visionären, den kulturkritischen und den reaktionären Entwürfen einer Welt von Morgen gleichermaßen als Projektionsfläche dient. In populären Metaphern wie McDonalds und Madonna, Cyberspace und E-Commerce, treffen Ängste und Utopien aufeinander. In ihnen erscheint die Globalisierung als eine Dynamik der Entgrenzung, die alle Lebensbereiche erfasst: physische Räume und Körper werden überwunden, kulturelle Unterschiede nivelliert, Märkte und Waren, Identitäten und Menschen sind jederzeit an jedem Ort … read more

Galerie Eigen+Art Leipzig

Mit Antje Blumenstein, Marcel Bühler, Oliver Croy, Thomas Fißler, Achim Kobe, Karsten Konrad, Ute Lindner, Thomas Lüer, Barbara Steppe, Tilo Schulz, Ulrike Kremeier

Auf Einladung der Galerie Eigen+Art wurde ein Projekt konzipiert, das mit den Gewohnheiten der gängigen Ausstellungspraxis bricht. UNSQUARE DANCE verweigert sich den klassischen Standards und bringt in vier Schritten das Format der kuratierten Galerie- und Gruppenausstellung in Bewegung : Neun sehr unterschiedliche künstlerische Positionen aus Dresden, Leipzig und Berlin lassen sich auf ein Experiment im Spannungsfeld zwischen künstlerischer und kuratorischer Praxis ein. Im UNSQUARE DANCE riskierten sie auf 90 qm mit rund 40 Bildern, Objekten und Installationen die Kollision divergierender thematischen und ästhetischen Felder, um zusammen mit dem … read more