OSNABRÜCK.- Wilhelm Klotzek creates many different forms of art. Installations, sculptures, miniature models, poster series or text as forms of storytelling. [An installation is a work of art in space].The public space often plays an important role in his works. Places such as parks, squares or streets. Because he thinks: This is where important questions are negotiated together. Questions of socialisation with art, design and politics. [Socialisation means here: How have we learnt to deal with art, design and politics? From childhood onwards. How do we deal with it? What experiences have we had?]. Wilhelm Klotzek finds: Memories come together in public places. Private memories, but also shared memories of important moments in history. Wilhelm Klotzek tells of this in his humorous visual language.

Located in the inner courtyard of the Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Wilhelm Klotzek has created an “outdoor museum.” Museums have been around for a long time. Their significance has developed over the course of history. They are public institutions for the cultivation and communication of culture. A museum, however, can only show a limited selection of things. Who decides what knowledge and values should be conveyed in museums? And how are they communicated? For Wilhelm Klotzek, all these questions are the starting point for his playful, participatory installation. [Participatory means here: The visitors are invited to join in].

The installation is set up like a classic exhibition: plinths, picture frames, seating and sculptures. The sculptures look like visitors. In other words, everything that belongs in an exhibition is there. Only the art is missing. But there are labels on the picture frames and plinths. So the visitors can visualise the works of art.

The installation is an invitation to visitors and art mediators. They can all actively use the museum. Appropriate it. They can fill the empty frames and plinths. In their own minds or in workshops with the art mediation team.

Wilhelm Klotzek shows that a museum does not have to be a place of quiet and serious contemplation. It can also be a lively meeting place for everyone.

Wilhelm Klotzek (DE) is a sculptor who lives and works in Berlin. Among others, Klotzek has shown solo exhibitions at Galerie Kosterfelde Edition, Berlin (2023, 2021, 2020 and 2018), Galerie Tobias Naehring, Berlin (2020, 2019, 2017) and Institut für Kunst im Kontext, Berlin (2017). He has participated in major group exhibitions, including the 6th Sculpture Triennial, Bingen, DAS MINSK, Kunsthaus, Potsdam (both 2023), Kunstverein Reutlingen and the Institut für Auslandbeziehungen (Ifa) Stuttgart & Berlin (both 2022). Wilhelm Klotzek has been teaching as a professor in the sculpture department at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee since 2023.