Düsseldorf’s smal­lest art exhibition

Kö-Bogen Kö-Bogen sup­ports academy graduates

POS­TED BY ALEX IWAN, 1. FEB­RU­AR 2021

“The store in the pas­sage between Bre­uninger and Porsche Design is one of the busiest prom­en­ades in the heart of Düs­sel­dorf. Imple­ment­ing an art exhib­i­tion in the midst of this glit­ter­ing world of fash­ion and busi­ness with its enti­cing dis­plays is a chal­lenge, because the visu­al stim­uli of the goods and con­sumer offer­ings are over­whelm­ing,” says board mem­ber and cur­at­or Dr. Astrid Legge of 701 e.V., who helped bring­ing Paul Schwa­der­er to the Kö-Bogen.

With Paul Schwa­der­er, the 701 e.V. asso­ci­ation is real­iz­ing its new ‘PopUp Gal­lery’ format for the second time. After a first impact in 2019 in the Renzo Piano designed office build­ing FLOAT in the Media Har­bour, the asso­ci­ation has been show­ing at the Kö-Bogen a recent gradu­ate of the Art Academy, who gradu­ated last sum­mer in the class of Mar­tin Gost­ner. As in 2019, Düs­sel­dor­fers will also get an “art treat to go” this time, because corona-related, the exhib­i­tion is designed as a pure ‘win­dow show’ and can only be viewed from the out­side. 701 e.V. is a non-profit ini­ti­at­ive of Düs­sel­dorf per­son­al­it­ies from the fields of art and cul­ture, busi­ness and polit­ics. It sees itself as a link between busi­ness and art and pur­sues the goal of estab­lish­ing cre­at­ive net­works and thus sus­tain­ably strength­en­ing and pro­mot­ing the city’s cre­at­ive image.

Everything revolves around “Exten­ded Break

Prom­in­ently posi­tioned in the shop win­dow and yet incon­spicu­ous, the work ‘an exten­ded pause’ can be seen, a rotat­ing glass tube filled with a white powder on a black cuboid. The slow rota­tion causes the rock powder to pile up until the mater­i­al can no longer defy grav­ity. It breaks down, cre­at­ing cre­vasses and frac­tures remin­is­cent of nat­ur­al pro­cesses such as gla­cial move­ment or geo­lo­gic­al rock reshap­ing. And although the reel rotates exceed­ingly slowly, it shows, as if in fast-for­ward, a pro­cess that in real­ity spans cen­tur­ies. Fast-for­ward and slow-motion are very close togeth­er here.