What if not the World?
Jahresgaben 2022/2023
4. Dezember 2022 – 29. Januar 2023

Cooperativa Crater Invertido, Yaya Coulibaly, Seydou Camara, Lafleur & Bogaert, Jean Muller Milord (Atis Rezistans / Ghetto Biennale), Maximilian Rödel, AK Schulze, Nino Bulling, Taring Padi, Lawrence (Shabu) Mwangi & Ngugi Waweru (Wajukuu Art project)

In 2022, the art world finally looks a little more global and we can see, for example at the Venice Biennale or Documenta in Kassel, what is happening on an artistic level in many corners of the world, from Mexico City, Mali, Nairobi, Yogyakarta, Porte-au-Prince to Berlin. Art has often played an activist and emancipatory role in these cities and has remained true to this legacy to a certain extent to this day.

Once again, the year is drawing to a close. "What if not the World" takes up this development as an annual exhibition to look back on what has moved us and what we want to highlight once again. This summer, we hosted the Cooperativa Crater Invertido at the Lichthaus. Their unbridled creative energy and their position at Documenta 15, together with other very convincing presentations by so many different artists and collectives at this Documenta, despite the boycott from many sides, have prompted us to present a selection of our Best Off Documenta as this year's annual editions 2022. Members of the Kunstverein Arnsberg can purchase the works and thus support the work of the artists and the activities of the Kunstverein. This year's Jahresgabenschau also brings together works by artists who have already been shown in exhibitions this year, such as AK Schulze, Maximilian Rödel and Cooperativa Crater Invertido with new positions.

We were very impressed by the quality of the works of the Ghetto Biennale with the group Atis Rezistans (Artists of Resistance) in the St. Kunigundis Church in Kassel. It is a constantly changing collective of artists from the Grand Rue neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Their style is influenced by Haitian everyday culture and the voodoo religion. We are showing a series of paintings and voodoo objects by the young artist Jean Müller Milord and sculptures by the Belgian-Haitian duo Lafleur & Bogaert. From Mali we have selected some big names from the Malian art scene including very special puppets by the masters Yaya Coulibaly and performative photography by Seydou Camera. Taring Padi is the most talked about group of artists at Documenta 15, unfortunately too often misunderstood. We are very pleased to be able to show their work at Kunstverein Arnsberg. Their works originate from the protest culture of Indonesia such as posters, cardboard dolls and banners to denounce political and ecological grievances. We are showing a selection of very finely crafted woodcut posters and cardboard dolls (wayang kardus) from the last 22 years. The Wajukuu Art Project is a community-based organization based in the Lunga-Lunga area of the Mukuru slum in Nairobi. The project was founded in 2004 by a group of artists with a common goal: To make Mukuru Mukuru a place where children can thrive and to create employment through the production and sale of quality artwork. Lawrence (Shabu) Mwangi & Ngugi Waweru are two very active and successful artists from this project, and are represented with five major paintings. And last but not least, we are also presenting works by Nino Bulling, comic artist and author from Berlin: hand-painted drawings on silk and the original preliminary studies as ink drawings that expand on the motifs and scenes from his book. Equal parts hedonistic and poignant, and set against the backdrop of climate change, the graphic novel abfackeln follows a couple as they navigate the ambivalent experiences of sex, intimacy, bodies and kinship.

exhibition documentation: Heiner Lieberum