OUR HOUSE

In the organizer's words:

A network meeting as part of "...and we're just getting started. Artists of the VdDK 1844"

With: Cornelia Eichhorn (Le 6b, Paris), Rahel Bruns (Frise Hamburg), Vera Brüggemann (Artists Unlimited Bielefeld), Wolfgang Hambrecht (Atelierhaus Sittarder Straße), Moderation: Katja Stuke (VdDK 1844)

What is the current situation for artists? Rising rents, urban changes and resistance to an open society are not making things any easier. The VdDK 1844 is involved in Düsseldorf's oldest studio house. Wolfgang Hambrecht, Managing Director of "Düsseldorfer Künstleratelier GmbH", will report on this. We are delighted that we have been able to invite Cornelia Eichhorn, Rahel Bruns and Vera Brüggemann, other artists from Paris, Hamburg and Bielefeld, to talk about 'their' artists' houses, their stories and special features.
The main focus of the event is on networking and exchange. We are therefore looking forward to welcoming many artists and stakeholders to talk about their experiences and projects. All guests are cordially invited to get into conversation, exchange experiences, develop new (artistic) strategies and network in the long term.

Brief bios:

1st Düsseldorf

Wolfgang Hambrecht / Atelierhaus Sittarder Straße
Born in Freiburg
Lives and works in Düsseldorf
Studied at the University of Karlsruhe (art history)
Studied at the Karlsruhe Art Academy (with Per Kirkeby)
Studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy (with Dieter Krieg)
Villa Romana Prize (1995)
Academy of Fine Arts Stuttgart (professorship)
Academy of Fine Arts Münster (professorship)
Wolfgang Hambrecht is a member of the board of the VdDK 1844.

The listed Sittarder Straße studio building is located in the immediate vicinity of Düsseldorf's "art mile" and is the last remaining historic studio building in Germany. It was built for this purpose in 1908 and offers space for 37 artists. The house is owned by the non-profit Künstleratelier GmbH and is supported by the rental income. Among the prominent artists who have worked in the house are Günther Haese, Norbert Kricke, Fritz Schwegler, Lothar Baumgarten and Konrad Klapheck.

2 Bielefeld

Vera Brüggemann is a visual artist, mainly in the field of drawing, and an artistic illustrator. She also works as an art mediator and is co-curator/organizer of the media art festival "Abendspaziergang" in Bielefeld. She has been a member of the Bielefeld artists' association Artists Unlimited since 2020, including two years on the board.

About Artists Unlimited e.V.

Artists Unlimited is an artists' house in a disused factory in the center of the city of Bielefeld and is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

The house offers visual artists and artistic designers residential studios and ateliers. Currently, 31 artists aged 21-65 from all areas of the visual arts live and work in the house, as well as three children in their respective families. The association runs its own gallery, where local, regional and international artists exhibit their work. In addition, an international guest artist scholarship is awarded three times a year, which is financed from the association's own funds.

All of the association's content-related and administrative work is carried out by its members on a voluntary basis. The only permanent funding the association has received to date is a comparatively low rent, which is currently being politically contested.

3rd Paris

Cornelia Eichhorn was born in Erfurt in 1981. She initially studied film at the University of Paris VIII before transferring to the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In 2012, she was a finalist for the European Photography Award at the Royal College of Art London and was selected for the Neo Rauch Graphic Foundation's summer residency in Aschersleben in 2018. Since then, she has participated in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad, including the Kunstfilmtage of the Kunstverein Rosenheim in Bavaria and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Dole. In 2021, Céline du Chéné invited her to her radio column "L'encyclopédie pratique des Mauvais Genres" on France Culture and she received the Ekphrasis grant awarded by Adagp, Quotidien de l'Art and AICA France. Her works are in numerous private collections as well as in several public collections, including the Artothèque of Caen (purchase in 2022) and the City of Aschersleben. Since 2024, she has been represented by Galerie Huberty&Breyne Chapon.

Le 6b

Located in a former industrial site in Saint-Denis, Le 6b is a unique center for creation and art mediation in Île-de-France, hosting a creative ecosystem of over 250 resident structures and artists. Since its opening in 2010, the association has put all its energy into making culture accessible to all, in a lively suburb of Paris in the midst of urban transformation. Le 6b thus attracts a committed community that has experienced unforgettable moments there at concerts, debates, performances and exhibitions. In 2020, Le 6b began a new decade, which it is shaping with a new artistic program, an active community of actors directly involved in the future of the cultural project and a constant dialogue with the region.

4th Hamburg

Rahel Bruns, born in 1979, is a conceptual sculptor and filmmaker. She first studied law and Islamic studies in Freiburg, then fine arts at the HBKBraunschweig, the UDK in Berlin and the ENPG in Mexico City. In 2007, she obtained her truck driver's license in Hamburg, where she has lived and worked ever since. She has been a member of the Frise artists' house in Hamburg since 2016.

Frise:

The Künstler*innenhaus Hamburg - FRISE e.V. is a democratically organized and oldest artists' house in Hamburg and offers studios and workshops for around 50 artists from a wide range of fields and is dedicated to the presentation and mediation of international artistic positions with an ambitious exhibition program.

5 Katja Stuke, *1968, has been the first chairwoman of the VdDK 1844 since November 2024. From 2006 to 2020 she was on the board of the Künstlerverein Malkasten. Often together with Oliver Sieber, she covers a broad spectrum of identities: Photographer and artist, curator and initiator of exhibitions, designer and publisher of artists' books. With ANT!FOTO, they have developed a format to show the many faces, but also the increasingly wandering image forms and presentation methods of the media. Most recently, they received the MO_Kunstpreis from the Museum Ostwall in Dortmund.

Price information:

Regular admission to the exhibition: Adults EUR 6.00 Concessions EUR 3.00 Groups of 10 or more EUR 3.00 Children/young people up to the age of 18 free Disabled persons incl. accompanying person free