The Window. An approach to the Kunstverein
Masters seminar produces publication with the Kunstverein Lüneburg.
2021-03-08 What function do art associations have under contemporary conditions? Students of the degree programme "Cultural Studies: Culture and Organization" worked together with the Kunstverein Lüneburg and Prof. Boukje Cnossen on this question during the winter semester and have now brought out their results in the publication "The Window"/"Das Fenster".
If you look through the large window of the Kunstverein Lüneburg, it seems as if you are looking into the reception hall of a newspaper publisher, because you see printed paper webs spread out as sculptures in the room, on them a projection of a hand leafing through the newspaper. Since mid-February, the Kunstverein has been fulfilling a double function: not only as a space for installation, but also as a contactless distribution centre for the publication "The Window"/"Das Fenster", which was produced as part of a cooperation between the Master's programme "Culture and Organisation" and the Kunstverein Lüneburg. The clear reference in the title to the rooms that the Kunstverein moved into only about a year ago is also a metaphor for the insights into the different perspectives of the authors and an outlook on a possible future of the Kunstverein, explains Jana Faßbender, a participant in the seminar. In the 12-page newspaper, the students publish their contributions as approaches, explorations, critiques, statistics and fictions. In addition to the poem "space", a poetic-spatial examination of place, it also contains, for example, the vision of a post-pandemic rave as the vernissage of a series of events. "After a seemingly endless period of quiet nights, increasing 'social awkwardness' and a decreasing awareness of how humans move rhythmically, the social relevance of partying will be demonstrated at the cu:RAVE on 12 August 2022 at the Kunstverein Lüneburg," the students write in the column "Was werden"/"What to become" at the end of the paper.
The students identified the role of an art association above all in its function as a place of encounter and platform for confrontations between a wide range of people and perspectives. Contrary to their intention, however, art associations are perceived as elitist in many places. "An art association should be a place that is accessible to everyone and can be actively shaped by its members," say students Jana Faßbender and Luca Marie Tüshaus. A cooperation like the one between the university and the Kunstverein is a big step towards achieving this ideal. A cooperation with the Hamburg Kunstverein and the New Zealand artist Simon Denny is already planned for the next semester.
The newspaper "The Window"/"Das Fenster" will be presented as an installation in the Kunstverein's exhibition rooms at Lünerstraße 10a until 14 March, where it is available free of charge and without contact at the Kunstverein's doors. The students would like to thank Max Weinland for the graphic realisation of the newspaper and Angela Schoop, chairwoman of the Kunstverein Lüneburg, for the good cooperation, as well as the Institute for Sociology and Cultural Organisation.