What Is Steady Anyway?

Nura Afnan-Samandari, Anna van Baarsen, Philipp Baumann, Fynn Bierik, Klara Fee Borowski, Philippe Emanuel Derlien, Sven Dirkmann, Viktoria Feierabend, Magdalena Frauenberg, Alexander Gdanietz, Tonia Fee Graß, Sonja Heim, Antonia Hermes, Konstantin Holle, Aljoscha Lahner, Leonard Horres, Kathi Irmen, Sunyou Jeong, Jella Jess, Haedeun Kim, Hyorim Kim, Philipp Krabbe, Theo Kruse, Christoph Kyri, Lilli Lake, Robin Laszig, Christian Leicher, Ye Li, Hannah Linden, Maya Luna Lorieux, Erik Mikaia, Anna Orlinski, Hannah Malka Papendieck, Johanna Viola Pfeffer, Hendrik Plönes, Lukas Nils Schneider, Charlotte Hedwig Schönherr, Marie Schubert, Karoline Schultz, Anna Shpak, Pauline Simon, Linda Skellington, Shizuka Uemura, Jonathan Milan Wagner, Flora Weber, Konrad Weichs, Rosa Weiland, Sophia C. Aiona Weische, Nil Zengin

‘Each time an individual moves an object from one place to another, they participate in the changing of the world.’[1]

Issa Samb

The Philara Collection is pleased to present a new, two-phase, temporary exhibition, What Is Steady Anyway? This exhibition has been realised in cooperation with the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in connection with its 250 Jahre Kunstakademie Düsseldorf programme of anniversary events. Current works by present students and recent graduates of the classes of Professor Sabrina Fritsch and Professor Franka Hörnschemeyer are shown. This continues the friendly relationship between the Philara Collection and the Kunstakademie, already developed through previous exhibitions, such as Mirrrors and Windows (2021), a presentation of the work of female professors at the Kunstakademie to mark the centenary of the academy’s first admission of women students, as well as Attempts to Be Many (2021), Breathing Water, Drinking Air (2022), and I've Only Got Eyes for You (2023), which featured numerous works by Kunstakademie artists.

The concept for this exhibition was developed on the basis of conversations with the participating artists, and in collaboration with Nele Kaczmarek, an independent curator and deputy director of IMAI – Inter Media Art Institute, which is immediately adjacent to the Philara Collection. The concept also addresses aspects of proximity, and continual processes of exchange and transformation. In What Is Steady Anyway? works produced by both classes engage in ongoing dialogue; during its two phases the exhibition will thus continue to change and expand, incorporating more works and constellations. The works of the artists shown here reflect a range of current issues, including rendering visible both hidden infrastructures and states of mind. This often generates process-based, mobile works that challenge and go beyond the boundaries of the exhibition space.

Exhibition curators: Julika Bosch, Nele Kaczmarek

Curatorial assistant: Dana Bulic

[1] Quoted in: Clémentine Deliss, The Metabolic Museum, Berlin, 2020, p. 71.