The Julia Stoschek Collection is both an art archive and a space for social reflection: it exhibits important installations and media artworks in a historic factory building in Oberkassel on the left bank of the Rhine, which only develop their full potential over time. These are works, independent points of view, made for long periods of time, for which duration plays a role, as the patron and passionate collector Julia Stoschek herself describes it.
She has already collected around 900 exhibits by around 300 contemporary artists for her popular exhibition space since it opened in 2007. And the number is constantly growing. Guests who approach the modern Kunstspeicher today, which stands out on the outside with its castle-like architecture and large window fronts, can expect to see a collection that includes film, video and sound works as well as performances, computer and software-based artworks.
According to Stoschek, the audiovisual has been important to her since her youth. The German entrepreneur wants to use her collection to bring "time-based art production" from the 1960s to the present day closer to visitors who are interested in socio-political, narrative or performance art, for example. It achieves this by collaborating with galleries, institutions and workshops from the region, the whole of Germany and the world. The collection grows with the exhibitors and reflects their evolving practice.
On the other hand, she succeeds in her concept by incorporating early modern industrial architecture, which repeatedly merges with individual exhibition elements to form a unity. At times, guests can stroll through long corridors with pictures in the 3,000-square-metre thinking space, before finally allowing themselves to fall into a world of film in a large hall with clear lines and shapes. Depending on the exhibit, the brightness on site also plays a role. The team selects the locations of individual works for presentations according to the lighting conditions.
It is also worth noting that the building has its own cinema, which was completed in 1907 and was already a stage workshop, a production facility for ladies' corsets and a picture frame factory in the last century. After their visit, guests can ideally take a trip to the banks of the Rhine or to another Kunsthaus. The K20 of the Kunstsammlung NRW and the Düsseldorfer Kunstpalast are both around 35 minutes' walk away.
