Räume der Erinnerung
7.7. – 9.9.2012

North Rhine-Westphalia’s relationship to France, particularly to Paris, has a long tradition, one that has been of great significance for the Rhenish art scene. The Düsseldorf art dealer and educator, translator and editor of French literature Jean-Pierre Wilhelm (born Kurt Wilhelm, 1912–1968) was one of the first to advance the cause of the local avant-garde. Together with Manfred de la Motte, he founded Galerie 22 in Düsseldorf, which from 1957 to 1960 initiated an intense cultural exchange between Germany and France. In 1958, Jean-Pierre Wilhelm presented the French artist Jean Fautrier for the first time in Germany in a solo exhibition. Hans Mayer’s gallery, located since 1972 in the immediate vicinity of the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, likewise had close ties to Denise René’s Parisian gallery since the nineteen sixties. In 1968, only six months after it was opened in its newly-built concrete cube, the Kunsthalle itself put on the exhibition “Coeur de France: Kunst aus dem Herzen Frankreichs”. Another connection between Germany and France emerges in the year of this exhibition itself: the work of Marcel Duchamp, whose stay in Munich marked its 100th anniversary in 2012.

Convinced of the liveliness and international relevance of contemporary art production in France, the Kunsthalle took on the suggestion made by ADIAF (Association pour la Diffusion Internationale de l’Art Français) and its founder and chairman Gilles Fuchs to curate an exhibition with works by winners and nominees of the Marcel Duchamp Prize. The exhibition “Räume der Erinnerung (Rooms of Memory)” shows works by Kader Attia, Mircea Cantor, Cyprien Gaillard, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Anri Sala and Tatiana Trouvé.

Please find here the catalogue of the exhibition.