Aber mit Kunst kann man auch leben

An exhibition by Mia Unverzagt in collaboration with Anne Hörz

28/01 - 10/03/2023

Museums and galleries generally dictate to the public what art is and how it is presented. But how is it in private? Does it make a difference whether the art at home was inherited, acquired, or created by oneself? Does everyone here decide for themselves what is worth exhibiting or what is art? And what role does visual art play in our private lives at all?

During the Corona period, home office and video conferences became established, whereby one repeatedly gained insights into private homes. A BASF employee noticed that quite a few of his colleagues have art on their walls. Curious, he suggested exhibiting this art once, in order to show what different works private individuals have in their rooms. In response to a call in the employee newspaper of BASF, numerous people who have art at home reported: Bought, inherited, or self-produced. To capture their different approaches and ways of dealing with art and to present them in an exhibition, the artist Mia Unverzagt was won over. She visited and interviewed the participants and photographed the art with which the participants surround themselves in their four walls. The result is a multifaceted portrait of the significance of art in the private sphere, which questions the usual interpretive and presentational sovereignty of museums and galleries and partly stands in contrast to it. The relationship to art in its significance for the life of the individual is no less important in the private environment than in public exhibition spaces. It is even much more intense and personal, as the art at home surrounds us every day over many years.

So, art is not just something for exhibitions and museums, one can also live with art.