ALKERSUM.- The sea, the beach, the seashore – could there be more beautiful subjects for painting? The Museum Kunst der Westküste has dedicated itself to the fascinating range of subjects linked to “the sea and the seaside” and in the context of its collection the museum presents an extensive selection of new acquisitions and donations from the past three years. The well-known masterpieces of Max Liebermann (1847–1935), including “Two Riders on the Beach” and “Hunter in the Dunes,” are joined by “new” paintings, oil sketches, drawings and prints the German Impressionist conceived and created during his annual summer sojourns at the Dutch seashore. Fellow artists are included as well, such as the painters of the famous Skagen artist colony who through their study of French Impressionism came to develop a distinct visual language of their own. The exhibition assembles more than 85 works, including 40 new acquisitions. A total of 36 works by Max Liebermann are on view.

Empty Rooms
The Beauty of Emptiness
What emotions, memories and experiences can an empty, quiet space arouse when being viewed? A living space or a room can be a place that bears witness to how people have lived in it. It appears as an abandoned space that in a poetic or enchanted way — or, indeed, unconsciously — captivates viewers and makes them think of things they themselves experienced. An abandoned theatre awaiting renovation can also induce a melancholy mood.

In the exhibition eleven international contemporary artists present their individual exploration of this multi-layered phenomenon. The photographers Nicole Ahland, André Lützen, Trine Søndergaard and Thomas Wrede as well as the painter Julia Rothmund lend unusual, deserted found spaces pictorial dignity; they play with light and shade and search for traces of one-time use. Alastair Mackie and Charles Matton, on the other hand, configure and stage new spaces with their objects, spaces that are almost peep-box-like and that are lit or seem outlandish. The reflection on time and light in space underlying all the works is also central to the video installations of Lauri Astala, Astrid Kruse Jensen, Martijn Veldhoen and Bill Viola.

Lipadusa
Calogero Cammalleri
Geographically closer to Africa yet politically a part of Italy, Lampedusa is a bottleneck for refugees on the way to Europe and a crystallization point of their hopes for a better life. The Mediterranean island has come to be synonymous with migration and tragedies at sea. This is the image that dominates in the media.

But how does actual life take place? In his black- and-white photo series “Lipadusa,” the young Italian photographer Calogero Cammalleri (b. 1993), who grew up in Germany, traces the original character of the island, turning his focus to a Lampedusa that is sometimes mundane and rough, sometimes lively and cheerful and sometimes dreamy and other-worldly.

In November 2013 a grant from Fabrica, the communication research centre of the Benetton Group, allowed Cammalleri to live on the island for nine months. He wanted to get closer to his background and identity, in order to go on wanderings with the fishermen and the children and capture poetic moments which can tell a lot about the life of the islanders. The sometimes deliberately blurry photographs seem to idealise reality, yet in fact they very much point to the fragility of social coexistence.

Thomas Judisch
Interventions in the Museum Space
The works of Thomas Judisch (b.1981), who stayed in Alkersum in 2014 as artist-in-residence, can invariably and in good conscience be taken tongue-in-cheek, as he cultivates a playful, subversive approach to his media. Nothing is what it seems. The works engage in trompe l’oeil, or deception of the eye, as it were, as they present everyday items to viewers that appear highly realistic. The apparently licked “lollipop” a child seems to have deposited seemingly unnoticed at an unusual place is, in fact, a worked piece of amber millions of years old that was found on the island of Föhr. And the no less deceptively realistic “horse turds” currently to be discovered at the Museum Kunst der Westküste are bronze casts of the pieces of horse dung frequently found on the footpaths of the island of Föhr and especially in Alkersum, a town well known to horse lovers. They are an ironic commentary on the tradition of the heroic equestrian statue that goes back to the Renaissance.

Get involved in the play with perception, these interventions that can be found in various places in the Museum Kunst der Westküste! Embark on a discovery tour of the museum foyer, Grethjens Gasthof and the museum garden!

From 15 May until 29 May 2016the Museum Kunst der Westküste and Thomas Judisch will, moreover, be guests at the Ehlers fashion house in Wyk auf Föhr. In this first-time cooperation with the established fashion house Judisch will present an important focus of his work. In the two-week exhibition “Clothes Make a Friend” you will encounter “special” coats, shirts, scarves, baseball caps, flip-flops and bras as well as other items from the “wardrobe” in the business premises and the shop window.