5 Questions – Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen

CH Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen has long been committed to producing new work rather than simply exhibiting existing projects. What does it mean, from a curatorial perspective, to create the conditions for artistic production instead of presentation?

HEG It is always incredibly rewarding to contribute to the creation of new works and then to see them leave the institution and enter the world after an exhibition. Of course, there is also the less exciting question of funding. For our small curatorial team, a great deal of time and effort therefore goes into securing grants and sponsorships. This is essential if we want to make it possible for artists to develop and produce ambitious new works specifically for our exhibitions. As a curator, you are also involved in the production process in a very different way, supporting artists in realizing their ideas—researching how something can be produced, exploring possible technical solutions, and thinking through the installation process, particularly with regard to the specific architectural and spatial conditions of the institution, which often play a crucial role in determining what is actually possible. Since there are rarely standard solutions when producing new artworks, and new approaches often have to be developed along the way, this also requires curators to engage with areas and fields they might never have expected to encounter in their work. You might suddenly find yourself dealing with questions of materials, engineering, technology or fabrication. Art is often unpredictable, and that is precisely what makes producing new work so exciting.

CH Your programme brings together internationally established artists, emerging positions, and works from the Lütze Collection. How do you approach creating meaningful dialogues between different generations, contexts, and artistic practices without forcing connections?

HEG The Lütze Collection begins in the late 19th century and spans around 200 years of art history. It therefore provides a historical framework for our contemporary exhibitions, as we repeatedly see that certain themes are never exhausted, but continue to reappear in different forms across generations and changing social and artistic contexts. I think that when a museum takes responsibility for preserving such a collection, it is equally important to make it visible and accessible. This is why we have dedicated an entire floor of our main building to the collection, where we present parts of it on a permanent basis. The middle floor and our extension, the Oktogon, are reserved for major temporary exhibitions of contemporary art, while on the ground floor, our Schaufenster junge Kunst provides two spaces for the youngest generation. This structure gives us different opportunities to create dialogue and exchange between the collection, the contemporary exhibitions and the younger generation of artists. We can use the proximity to create connections, contrasts and unexpected points of reference between them. The collection, for example, has a particular focus on painting. With our recent presentation we opened Iris Helena Hamer’s exhibition Syzygy in the Schaufenster junge Kunst, presenting visual worlds that draw on the digital realm. The juxtaposition created an interesting connection between different approaches to image-making and between established positions in the collection and a younger generation working with contemporary technologies and visual languages. We are currently showing a major solo exhibition by Net Art pioneer Olia Lialina, who is a professor at the Merz Akademie in Stuttgart, alongside works by her students in the Schaufenster junge Kunst. Here, the connection is particularly direct: we are bringing together the work of an internationally established artist with that of a younger generation who are engaging with similar questions and media from their own perspectives. In this way, the different spaces can enter into a dialogue with one another, allowing visitors to discover relationships and continuities that might not be immediately apparent.

CH Public institutions often face the challenge of balancing accessibility with critical discourse. How do you develop exhibitions that remain intellectually ambitious while inviting audiences with very different levels of familiarity with contemporary art? To be honest, I am not a fan of the idea that art has to be, or should be, easily accessible

HEG To be honest, I am not a fan of the idea that art has to be, or should be, easily accessible in order to reach different audiences. Art is often intellectually demanding, and I think that is a good thing and something it should be allowed to remain. What is personally very important to me, however, is the mediation of these complex ideas and contents—and doing so on an equal footing with the audience. In my experience, this almost always succeeds in bringing visitors along, creating points of access and sparking enthusiasm. Another aspect I place great importance on when developing the programme is finding a balance between exhibitions that are accessible to a wide range of audiences—whether because of their subject matter or because they offer something to engage with on an aesthetic level—and exhibitions that focus on specific questions or themes within art itself. In other words, exhibitions dealing with the intrinsic concerns of art. We should not forget that art itself has a right to exist, and that there are forms of artistic expression that do not address an explicit social or political issue. I am thinking, for example, of the exhibition unforeseen by the two conceptual sculptors Gianni Caravaggio and Johannes Wald, or of Chris Succo’s abstract paintings in his exhibition Shadows Are Phantoms.

CH Beyond exhibitions, Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen invests heavily in conversations, performances, workshops, and educational formats. Do you see mediation as something that happens alongside an exhibition, or has it become an integral part of curatorial practice itself?

HEG For me, the two things are not mutually exclusive. As I already mentioned, I believe that education and mediation are fundamental to creating access to art for very different audiences and, in doing so, to fostering enthusiasm for it. This is why mediation has a firmly established place within our institution. At the same time, our different formats, such as artist talks, guided tours or lectures, offer the opportunity to explore the exhibitions in greater depth, open up further discussions and approach their themes from an interdisciplinary perspective. In this sense, mediation is an integral part of our curatorial practice and the exhibitions, while still allowing the artworks themselves to remain at the centre.

CH Looking ahead, what role do you believe a contemporary public art institution should play today? And what kind of conversations do you hope Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen will continue to initiate over the coming years?

HEG I believe that, first and foremost, a contemporary public art institution should be a platform for art. A place where ambitious and diverse artistic practices can be encountered and where people have the time and space to engage with them. Art should not necessarily have to serve a particular social or political agenda. Contemporary art of course can engage with these issues, but it should also remain free to be ambiguous, poetic, experimental or simply concerned with artistic expression itself. I hope that Galerie Stadt Sindelfingen can create opportunities for people of different backgrounds and generations to encounter art in its diverse forms, develop their own perspectives and discover something unexpected. Looking ahead, I hope the museum remains open, experimental and rooted in its local context while engaging with international developments. Most importantly, I hope it continues to initiate open-ended conversations—not necessarily providing answers, but creating a space where people can question, listen, disagree and imagine new possibilities together.