BÉTON BRUT 6

BÉTON BRUT 02/09

In Béton Brut's sixth issue (published in December 2009) an essay by the British artist Liam Gillick reflects on the upheaval around 1968 and its impact on the visual arts. It is a reference to the exhibition Dance in My Experience at the Kunstverein, which focuses on the utopian ideas of 1968 through contemporary artistic viewpoints. The magazine also contains a documentation of the exhibition Dubai Düsseldorf and a report on the project Ideenbilder, within which the students of the -1/MinusEins/Experimentallabor at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne deal with Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Furthermore, Béton Brut contains - as usual - texts and images to accompany the installations shown in the project space "Schaufenster Kunstverein", these are the works of Jason Dodge, Lasse Schmidt Hansen, Katharina Marszewski and David Jablonowski. The preview section Andere Orte indicates recommendable exhibitions all around Germany.
In addition, this year's editions are published as a booklet within the magazine.

BÉTON BRUT 5

BÉTON BRUT 01/09

In Béton Brut' s fifth issue (published in May 2009)  Vanessa Joan Müller describes the "green geometry" of supposedly natural landscapes and parks - a topic the French artist Isabelle Cornaro has picked out as a central theme in her solo exhibition. Additionally, the magazine contains a documentation of the dHCS stipendiaries' works as well as texts and images of the installations in the "Schaufenster" by Martin Hoener, Christine Moldrickx und Marijn van Kreij. The Insert has been designed by Germaine Kruip, whose solo show Aestheticas as a Way of Survival will be on in Kunstverein from June till August. The exhibitions discussed in the preview section will lead you to Munich, Hanover, Frankfurt and to the closer vicinity like Mönchengladbach, Cologne and Krefeld.

Published in German

BÉTON BRUT 4

BÉTON BRUT 02/08

The fourth issue of Béton Brut (published in October 2008) comprises an essay by Thomas W. Kuhn, which traces similarities and differences between the Düsseldorf Fotoschule and the Vancouver School of Photography on the occasion of the upcoming solo exhibition of Ian Wallace. Further you will find texts and images of the group show "The perception of ideas leads to new ideas" as well as the exhibitions of Neville Rae, Kristoffer Frick & Eric Bell and Julia Horstmann in the "Schaufenster Kunstverein". Charlotte Moth who will show in the project space next spring has conceived this issue's insert. The preview section focusses this time on the nearer surrounding: from Schwerte and Essen to Leverkusen, Cologne and Bonn.

Published in German

BÉTON BRUT 3

BÉTON BRUT 01/08

The third issue of Béton Brut (published in May 2008) features a text by Dirck Möllmann on the works of Eske Schlüters, who has developed this issue's insert. The artist's films and videos shown in a filmprogram accompanying her solo exhibition are introduced in short texts.
Jan Verwoerts Essay on "Living with Ghosts: From Appropriation to Invocation in Contemporary Art" connects Eske Schlüter's appropriation of existing film images to the group show "The perception of ideas leads to new ideas" following this summer.
Further on there is the new column "Schaufenster Kunstverein" which this time focusses on the works of Gwenneth Boelens and Ellen Munro.

Published in German

BÉTON BRUT 2

BÉTON BRUT 02/07

The second issue of the magazine of Kunstverein (published in October 2007) functions again as art journal and catalogue:
You find texts on the exhibitions "Kapitaler Glanz" (Capital Glamour) and "Palermo", which is accompanied by photographs Barbara Klemm took of Blinky Palermo during his exhibitions in Frankfurt/Main and Darmstadt. Both exhibitions are connected through an essay on elegance as moment of beauty apart from the economic by Oliver Tepel.
Furthermore: an insert by Ulla von Brandenburg and a preview section.

Published in German

BÉTON BRUT 1

BÉTON BRUT 01/07

Brutalism describes an architectural style which is distinguished by geometric forms, steel and glass and most of all the use of concrete displaying the texture of the forms used for casting (béton brut). The 1967 building on the Grabbeplatz designed for Kunsthalle and Kunstverein by Konrad Beckmann is an exposed example of brutalist architecture. Important in architecture history, within the city the building is not exactly popular, which is surely connected to the rough appearance of the facade, its resistance to blend in the cityscape harmonically and its pladoyer for the absolute new inscribed into modernist objectives.
Since January 2007 the program of Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen sets out to question the promises and ideals of modernism and to disclose potentials and dissonances. Béton Brut, magazine of Kunstverein, is published semi-annaully and will be part of this program as well as accompany it informatively and discoursively.

Published in German