K21 Sammlung
In the organizer's words:
The international contemporary art of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is housed in K21, the former Ständehaus on Düsseldorf's Kaiserteich. While changing exhibitions can be seen in the basement and on the Bel Etage, the rooms around the arcades on the 2nd and 3rd floors house the collection of contemporary art from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Photographs by Thomas Struth, sculptures by Thomas Schütte and video works by Robert Wilson, among others, have long been part of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen's holdings. The work "Das Deutschlandgerät" (1990/2021) by Reinhard Mucha, which was installed in the former plenary hall when K21 opened in 2002, also reveals the historical dimension of contemporary artistic practice.
There are numerous new acquisitions to discover in the constantly changing collection presentation on the 2nd and 3rd floors. Many of these are exhibits from recent temporary exhibitions at K21, including works by Lutz Bacher, Raqs Media Collective, Cao Fei, Ai Weiwei, Carsten Nicolai, Hito Steyerl, Marcel Odenbach and Isa Genzken. New acquisitions also include black and white photographs from Syria and Iraq by Ursula Schulz-Dornburg and paintings by Tamina Amadyar, Paul Czerlitzki and Anna Boghiguian. As the most recent acquisitions to the collection, they illustrate the topicality of painting that understands itself politically and formally aesthetically and are juxtaposed with the video work "Tide Table" (2002) by the artist William Kentridge.
The presentation of the K21 Global Art Award (2023: Senzeni Marasela, 2024: Wang Tuo), which is presented annually to an international artistic personality, is integrated into the presentation of the collection, as is the archive of Dorothee and Konrad Fischer on the second floor. From the estate of the Düsseldorf gallery owner couple, who are important for contemporary art, artistic positions or themes represented by them (2025: Lawrence Weiner) are presented at irregular intervals.
Tour of international contemporary art
The tour through the collection rooms at K21 does not follow a predetermined order. Room by room, the diversity of international art from the 1990s onwards is presented in different constellations. One of the highlights is the multimedia installation "SocialSim" (2020) by the internationally acclaimed video artist Hito Steyerl. The work, which was created for her exhibition "I Will Survive" (2020) at K21, takes a critical look at the flood of information on the internet, the potential of digitality, social simulation and artificial intelligence.
The double projection "Beweis zu nichts" (2017) by Marcel Odenbach was also purchased from the artist's solo exhibition (2021) at K21. The cinematic collage about the former Buchenwald concentration camp, which was transformed into a Stalinist-style memorial in the early GDR, makes a contribution to the work of remembrance. Henrike Naumann also exposes the individual layers of East and West German historical developments with her installation "Das Reich" (2017) in the neighboring room.
Dorothee and Konrad Fischer's archive is located on the second floor on the east side of K21. Changing presentations of documents and works not only make the pioneering work of the Düsseldorf gallery visible, but also show the working methods of outstanding artists from the second half of the 20th century. Salon21 is located next to the archive. On selected dates, exhibition-related lectures, screenings and public discussions take place here alongside the young discourse program K21 Encounters.
Location
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