GROUP SHOW WITH ERWIN WURM
ROHKUNSTBAU

SCHLOSS ALTDÖBERN, ALTDÖBERN, GERMANY
12 JULY – 2 NOVEMBER 2025

ROHKUNSTBAU has represented international exhibitions of contemporary art in Brandenburg for three decades. For the 30th time, leading artists from various countries are presenting their works in dialogue with the historical architecture of a Brandenburg castle, offering new perspectives on the present through this unique interaction between art and heritage. This year, the exhibition takes place at Schloss Altdöbern, a baroque castle in the district of Oberspreewald-Lausitz. The curator of this anniversary edition is Berlin-based cultural historian and exhibition organizer Christoph Tannert. Among the participating artists are Erwin Wurm and Anselm Reyle, whose works contribute significantly to the exhibition’s artistic discourse.

© Image KÖNIG GALERIE

The title of the 30th edition is ÄSTEHTISCHE WIEDERBEWAFFNUNG. Against the backdrop of increasing (re)nationalization and (re)ideologization in cultural policy—trends that increasingly place pressure on both art and society—the exhibition emphasizes the importance of maintaining the autonomy of art. It raises questions about the role of artistic practice in responding to current political challenges: Can it serve as a form of self-defense? Does art remain a space for critical reflection in a world shaped by violence, war, and terror? And in an age of rapid technological transformation, can it still offer moral orientation?

© Image KÖNIG GALERIE

The exhibition places its focus on the inherent strength of art and its potential to resist standardized viewing habits shaped by media and technology. Through site-specific works, it explores alternatives to the loss of individual experience in a reality increasingly influenced by artificial intelligence. Eighteen artistic positions form the core of the presentation, all of which regard their social function as grounded in the insistence on artistic freedom, autonomy, and creativity.

FEATURED ARTISTS

ANSELM REYLE
Anselm Reyle (b. 1970 in Tübingen, Germany) lives and works in Berlin. He studied at the State Academy of Art and Design in Stuttgart and Karlsruhe. Since 2009 the artist has held a position as a professor of Painting/Drawing at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg.

Anselm Reyle’s best-known works include his foil and stripe paintings as well as his sculptures. The characteristic of his artistic work is the use of various found objects that have been removed from their original function, altered visually, and recontextualized. Remnants of consumer society, discarded materials, symbols of urbanity, and industrial change play a centra...
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ERWIN WURM
Erwin Wurm (b. 1954 in Bruck an der Mur, Austria) lives and works in Vienna. His oeuvre comprises sculptures, photography, video, performance, and painting. His works often involve everyday objects such as cars, houses, clothing, luxury bags, and food products, with which he ironically comments on consumerism and capitalist mass production. Wurm gained widespread popularity in the 1990s with his “One Minute Sculptures”. Museum pedestals are displayed and left devoid of any work, so that the audience can take the place of the sculpture for one minute, according to the artist’s whimsical instructions. With this ironic yet radical gesture, Wu...
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