Andreas Siekmann
From: Limited Liability Company, 1996-99
In his decidedly political artwork, Andreas Siekmann deals with the commercialization and privatization of public spaces in cities. The Gustav-Lübcke-Museum displays Siekmann’s series of drawings "From: Limited Liability Company" for the first time ever in his home town of Hamm and the Ruhr metropolis.
The series, created from 1996 on, is on loan from Barcelona's Museu d'Art Contemporani (Macba) and has been published 1999 by Buchhandlung Walther König. Working in the tradition of the critical Cologne Progressive pictograms of the 1920s, Siekmann aims to translate abstract economic processes into easy-to-understand pictures.
In different sequences, he describes the transformation from a social market to a neo-liberal economy whose impact he likens to the rebirth of a predatory capitalism.
Very much in line with current economic development, the series will be shown alongside the exhibition "Alfred Fischer - a forgotten Ruhr architect - and the Saxony mine".
The two exhibitions are linked by a shared context: Siekmann's first sequence is clearly rooted in the political and stylistic tradition of the Cologne Progressives of the early 20th century - the era in which the Saxony mine was built. Towards the end of the 20th century, Siekmann's works deal with striking workers, and they do so in a former industrial site.
May 30 - August 8, 2010
Gustav-Lübcke-Museum, Hamm
The exhibition is part of the Ruhr ART MUSEUMS' "Mapping the Region" project.