Art by the stream

Touring exhibition

2020 – 2022

Kunst am Strom brings together art positions, artists and curators from the Danube region and is created in the sense of closer cooperation between the Danube countries.

With works of:
Birgit Brandis, Jörg Baier, Corinne Chotycki, Bettina Kattinger, Brigida Zuberi, Berenice Pahl, Helena Eribenne, Contact Zone (Mercedes Borgunska – Nina Geary; Aloe Corry – Livia Thommen; Josefina Francia – Zoe Wagner; Irem Gungez – Paolo Pérez Polar; Severin Hallauer – Pilar Morales Morales; Demian Jakob – Aimee Nelson; Landi Kirkwood – Andri Schatz; Martín Medina – Jan Stolze; Santiago Pina – Carla Gorbalán), Rudolf Sikora, Oto Hudec, Flóra Pertics, Sándor Imreh, Péter Somody, Ana Petrović, Vladimir Frelih, Adrienn Újházi, Nikola Džafo, Constantin Flondor, Andrei Rosetti, Ciprian Bodea, Cosmin Fruntes, Sorin Scurtulescu, Silvia Gancheva und Yulian Stankulov

The different art positions, artists and curators from the Danube countries will be shown in a traveling exhibition in 2020-2022. In addition, artists and curators will repeatedly meet, exchange ideas and form networks in the context of symposia and, in particular, in the context of the two European Capitals of Culture Novi Sad 2021 and Timisoara 2021. The project will be accompanied by an elaborate catalog (German-English), which will include texts by the curators and – as a new component – contemporary literary quotations on the selected artworks. The exhibition Kunst am Strom is intended to arouse curiosity about the artistic neighborhoods in the Danube region. The project deliberately avoids mystification, exoticization or clichés. The traveling exhibition makes different positions of the pre- and post-transition period visible and offers a representative cross-section of the art positions of the Danube countries.

"In view of the current climate crisis and the questions of the post-epidemic "world order", the Danube region is confronted with the challenge of dealing with the past and developing concepts for the future at the same time. The historical experience from this region could also become helpful in this process. We must now focus on innovation and creativity. The project Kunst am Strom intends - within the scope of its possibilities - to do just that: To learn from the past, to derive common solutions from the diversity of different approaches and to take care of the questions of the future through encounter and exchange.It is precisely because of the challenges mentioned above that it has a special relevance that the project involves the eight Danube countries Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria, which deal with current and contemporary issues within the Danube region with the means of visual arts."

(Quote from: Swantje Volkmann – Márton Méhes: Art and culture on the Danube)

"In addition to questions about current art positions in the Danube countries, the focus was above all on questions about the field of tension between the generally cosmopolitan position of the artists and existing regional ties. Curators in the Danube countries selected works by two to three artists each for the traveling exhibition, who represent certain art positions of the country and/or the region. The search for the representation of art positions is also an intergenerational project. The selection includes in each case two generations of artists*, namely those of 50+/- and those of 30+/-, i.e. on the one hand contemporary artists*, on the other hand those who experienced their essential imprint already before the fall of the "Iron Curtain"." Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

(Quote from: Swantje Volkmann – Márton Méhes: Art and culture on the Danube)

"Riverology can create understanding. Understanding, knowledge, love. Or at least: Not-killing-one-another; that's already a lot to gain."

(Quote from: Dieter Lohr: Applied Flowology)

“Crossing over means trusting the Other,taking yourself on a meeting with yourself.On each side – a single beginning,on each side – a single end.There and here contain their own here and there,learn how to hold a rope with both hands,skipping over a shadow without dampening the edges.”

(Quote from: Branislav Živanović: The Danube Dipthych – Bridges)

Concept

Swantje Volkmann, Márton Méhes

The curatorial team

Franziska Degendorfer (Karlsruhe)
Olivia Jaques (Wien)
Nikolas Bernath (Košice)
Péter Somody (Pécs)
Vladimir Frelih (Osijek)
Andrea Palašti (Novi Sad)
Sorin Scurtulescu (Temeswar)
Bozhidar Boyadzhiev (Sofia)

With literary texts by

Dieter Lohr (DE), Lydia Steinbacher (AT), Juraj Briškár (SK), Károly Méhes (HU), Helena Sablić Tomić (HR), Branislav Živanović (RS), Robert Șerban (RO), Palmi Ranchev (BG)

Exhibition stations

05.07. – 06.09.2020 Ulm Museum
24.09. – 08.11.2020 Schallaburg (Austria)
19.11. – 15.12.2020 VUNU Art Gallery Košice (Slovakia)

Project partner

The project is supported by the Museum Ulm and co-financed by the following cooperation partners: Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg, Baden-Württemberg Foundation, Danube Office Ulm/Neu-Ulm and Cultural Officer for the Danube Region at the Danube Swabian Central Museum Ulm. In cooperation with: Danube Cultural Cluster, Pécs Writers Program, European Capital of Culture – Novi Sad 2021, European Capital of Culture – Timisoara 2021