About

Württembergischer Kunstverein sees itself as a venue for an open examination of the manifold approaches and practices of contemporary art – and their far-reaching social and political fields of reference. Here, open implies above all to activate multilayered and contradictory readings and re-readings of contemporary art and its discourses.

Contemporary artists have extended their practices into widely ramified areas of society over the past forty years, overtaxing classical institutional structural conditions in an extremely creative manner. Today, they operate between the role patterns of artists, curators, magazine publishers, designers, architects, documentarists, programmers, web forum operators, independent institutions – and many more. They create their own locally and globally entrenched networks, that, parallel to the art business, produce critical and participatory spaces of communication and action.

Artists are constantly redetermining “classical” media such as drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and video. They have appropriated the Internet, software, computer games or mobile telephony as a field for artistic experimentation.

For an institution such as Württembergischer Kunstverein, that sees itself as an interface between the mercurial practices of contemporary art and its heterogeneous  audiences, this primarily means expanding our own formats, functions and education practices.

One approach towards this end consists in generating the Kunstverein’s programme on the basis of both local and international networks. In addition to projects we curate ourselves, this means regularly inviting freelance curators and institutions to conceive exhibitions, film programmes, workshops, etc. for the Kunstverein or to showcase their own projects here. On this basis the aim is to give rise to a programme reflecting the diverse nature of contemporary art as well as heterogeneous curatorial approaches.

Projects, such as On Difference (2005 and 2006), Subversive Practices (2009), or Re-Designing the East (2010) explicitly explore open, collective and mulitperspectival forms of curating.

Furthermore, our aim is to regularly showcase international positions that are rooted in the artistic practices of the 1970s and 1980s and that are relevant to the current discourse of contemporary art, as well as artistic positions beyond the "western" canon.

Württembergischer Kunstverein is primarily a venue of contemporary art. For this reason – given that contemporary art has long ceased to obey any narrow canon – we are constantly, and from different perspectives, focusing on such fields as architecture, design, urban planning, economies, political and social developments, film, and technologies.

The experimental aspect of the annual members’ exhibition, finally, consists in examining vastly different artistic positions by means of communicative processes – not negating differences but rather handling them in a productive and creative manner.

Not least, Württembergischer Kunstverein sees itself as an interface between art and research. Besides programs such as lecture series, conferences, workshops, seminars, film programs and performances, the Kunstverein offers a mobile workstation that provides magazines, catalogues, Internet connection, copier, and a series of archives, as for example the Exanded Cinema Study Collection.

We look forward to your visit.
Hans D. Christ / Iris Dressler