d – polytop. Art from Düsseldorf
23.2. – 28.4.2019

With Chris­ti­ne Er­hard, An­dre­as Fi­scher, Bi­an­ca C. Grü­ger, Heinz Haus­mann, Ul­rich Hen­sel, Ga­brie­le Horn­dasch, Jörg Paul Jan­ka, Ro­bin Mer­kisch, Jo­seph Sapp­ler, Mi­chel Sau­er, Stra­fe Für Re­bel­li­on, Magda­le­na von Ru­dy, Ralf Wer­ner

The Kunst­hal­le Düs­sel­dorf has al­ways be­en con­cei­ved as a ve­nue for in­ter­na­tio­nal and up-and-co­ming ar­tists, for a wi­de va­rie­ty of ex­hi­bi­ti­ons, in which the mo­dern and the avant-gar­de ha­ve their place. From the be­gin­ning, sin­ce its ope­ning on Grab­beplatz in April 1967, it has be­en an in­sti­tu­ti­on wi­th rough edges, open to the la­test de­ve­lop­ments and trends. The Kunst­hal­le Düs­sel­dorf has of­ten pro­ven to be a cor­rec­tive and has shown po­si­ti­ons from outside the fo­cus of pu­blic at­ten­ti­on. It has thus ac­ted as a ca­ta­lyst for the Rhi­ne­land art sce­ne.

Wi­th ex­pe­ri­men­tal ex­hi­bi­ti­ons such as the bet­ween se­ries (1969–1973), Nach­bar­schaft (1976), ÜBER ECK (2014), and most re­cent­ly Aka­de­mie [Ar­beits­ti­tel], the Kunst­hal­le Düs­sel­dorf, along wi­th the Kunst­ver­ein für die Rhein­lan­de und West­fa­len, has al­ways al­so be­en in­ten­ded as a ve­nue for the lo­cal art sce­ne. d – po­ly­top: Art from Düs­sel­dorf fol­lows this con­cep­ti­on.

The show brings to­ge­ther works by thir­teen ar­tists from Düs­sel­dorf and the re­gi­on who ma­ke im­portant cont­ri­bu­ti­ons to the art sce­ne in Düs­sel­dorf. Ma­ny co­me from the mi­lieu of the Kunst­aka­de­mie Düs­sel­dorf and crea­te con­sis­tent­ly high-qua­li­ty yet lar­ge­ly un­known art­works as ar­tist’s ar­tists.

In pre­pa­ra­ti­on for the ex­hi­bi­ti­on, works of va­rious gen­res and for­mats we­re view­ed and di­s­cus­sed and nu­me­rous stu­di­os we­re vi­si­ted. In the selec­tion of the par­ti­ci­pa­ting ar­tists, the em­pha­sis was on the va­rious wor­king me­thods, spe­ci­fic ap­proa­ches, and con­cep­tu­al ori­en­ta­ti­on of the works in the over­all con­text of the pl­an­ned ex­hi­bi­ti­on.

The tit­le of the ex­hi­bi­ti­on re­fers to a ma­the­ma­ti­cal con­cept: a po­ly­to­pe is a geo­me­tric fi­gu­re that ex­tends in any num­ber of spa­ti­al di­men­si­ons. In this sen­se, d – po­ly­top re­fers to a mul­ti­fa­ce­ted di­men­si­on of points, cor­ners, and edges, ul­ti­mate­ly of di­ver­se spa­ti­al for­ma­ti­ons in dif­fe­rent spaces and ti­mes. At the sa­me ti­me, the tit­le of the ex­hi­bi­ti­on re­fers to the cu­bic, bru­ta­list ar­chi­tec­tu­re of the Kunst­hal­le Düs­sel­dorf its­elf and to the six-day ex­hi­bi­ti­on ÜBER ECK in Sep­tem­ber 2014, in which the cor­ners in the ex­hi­bi­ti­on spaces and the ar­chi­tec­tu­re of the buil­ding ser­ved as fo­cu­sed are­as of the pre­sen­ta­ti­on. d – po­ly­top: Art from Düs­sel­dorf is thus a con­ti­nua­ti­on of the 2014 ex­hi­bi­ti­on.

The ex­hi­bi­ti­on will be ac­com­pa­nied by a ca­ta­log wi­th do­cu­men­ta­ry ma­te­ri­als on the ex­hi­bi­ti­on ÜBER ECK.

Cu­ra­ted by Da­na Berg­mann, Gre­gor Jan­sen, Ra­pha­el No­cken, and Jörg Schlür­scheid

Please find here the catalogue of the exhibition.