Empty Spaces

SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN

X Breidenbach (lives and works in Offenburg)

The Space between, 2025

paper, dust of the hall 09, beeswax, olive oil, bone black, feathers

The work "The Space between (Wing Study)" explores the tension between ascent and collapse as an ephemeral construction made of transient material.

Inspired by the story of Icarus, the work does not attempt to replicate flight, but rather to reveal its anatomy: the impulse, the fragility, the inevitable descent after the flight altitude was not maintained. The form, too, is reminiscent of a wing or an airfoil. It exists in a state of limbo on the brink of disintegration. The work is not a "representation of flight", but a "study of faith" - a fragile theory made of sustainable materials and temporary connections. The materials and temporary connections. The materials reference mythological sources while simultaneously building a bridge to the present.

Cristiana Cott Negoescu (* Bukarest, RO, lives and works in Düsseldorf)

Nominal Value, 2025

Installation set:

- 9 voting booths – tables and privacy walls - inspired by theones in the latest Romanian election. Positioned in a 3by 3 grid.

Dimensions: 80Lx80wcm , 180hcm ( with approximation)

- 1 singled out table, no privacy walls- 1 voting ballot- 1 cotton candy machine- 1 pile of sugar boxes- 1 surveillance camera

Performer: Tini Aliman • Ari Behnke Llanos • Rabe Chatha• Bene Rox • Emma Rüther • Eunbi Oh • Gabriela Tudor

This performative installation explores the complex socio-political issues of voter deception, trust, and the exploitation of belief during the election campaign. It critically examines the way in which political parties manipulate citizens in the battle for their votes by promising material rewards such as sugar, oil, and other resources—and yet, after casting their ballots, voters are disappointed, disillusioned, and betrayed by broken promises.

Emil Walde (*Düsseldorf, lives and works in Düsseldorf)

Involuntary Landmark, 2025

The work Involuntary Landmark consists of old windows from Duisburg Central Station. Detached from their original location, the panes are suspended in the exhibition space. The glass carries multiple meanings: transparency allowing a view through it, the separation of interior and exterior as both protection and boundary, the reflection of light and also the reflection of one’s own image, and finally, its fragility.
In the installation, they also serve as a symbol of a changing industrial landscape in North Rhine-Westphalia

Moritz Riesenbeck (*Warendorf, lives and works in Düsseldorf)

used user (lean), 2025

Bellows (ca. 1800), 2-position/3-way solenoid valves and control system, double-acting pneumatic cylinders and accessories, CNC engraving

Two 200-year-old bellows, now placed in a hall on the site of a former steelworks, slowly rise and fall. Equipped with a pneumatic cylinder, as is standard today, they “breathe” in and out once more.
These tools from the past once symbolized progress and development in iron and steel production and brought about more efficient production processes. Industrialization brought economic growth on the one hand. On the other hand, it led to environmental and air pollution, uncontrolled resource consumption, and social upheaval, social inequalities, urbanization, and the exploitation of workers who had to labor under dangerous conditions.
Francisco de Goya (1746–1828) was one of the artists of this era who enlightened through his works and etchings; he did not deny the world of ghosts, as many of his contemporaries did. He exposed the depths of stupidity and brutality inherent in religious and secular power. His depiction of witches tormenting small children. One of them is held by the hands and feet and abused as a bellows.
The etching is engraved on a bellows and can be faintly discerned.

Fabio Perino (*Turin, lives and works in Milan)

Lifetime Value, 2025

Wood, bread, foam, synthetic resin, gold leaf, dimensions variable

The phrase “panem et circenses” comes from the Roman poet Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis, 59–130 CE). It characterized how easily the “people” can be satisfied and manipulated by political or economic rulers. The verb “obey” is spelled out in wooden letters made of bread, with an overweight girl in radiant gold standing right in the middle. In his work, Fabio Perino confronts the viewer with the question of to what extent—and whether at all—a system, whether legal, social, or philosophical, has the right to define or even manipulate a being. People tend to follow authorities and ideologies without reflecting on them, and sometimes without considering what aligns with their own convictions, what they believe in, and why they believe it—and acting with that awareness.

Paul Valentin (*Munich, lives and works in Munich)

Hendiadyoin, 2025

3D rendering, UV print on blockout, gauze, Aubinol

Video:

Mindfields, 2025

00:06:00 (loop), 4K, 9:16, sound

The work consists of two curtains and a monitor. The curtains originate from Baroque theater, so-called “gassen.” In theatrical performances, printed, pasted, or painted curtains were used to create a perspectival illusion of nature or architecture on stage. In this work, the curtains represent part of a restored colonnade. Unlike in the theater, where the audience is fixed in their seats, visitors in the hall can vary their position and create or dispel the illusion on their own.

In the area where props are traditionally hidden, there is a monitor. A video loop plays on it, showing the ruins of a destroyed bunker complex painted with the symbols of a code. They speak of a deception; a set built to appear already destroyed, for the purpose of justifying a war. Yet the authors of this code soon no longer know themselves what is true and what is merely a facade. For some, it seems to be only about finding a piece of truth that is not fragile.
The scenes are 3D animated (CGI).

Andria Dolidze (*Tbilisi, lives and works in Düsseldorf)

2 2 2 2, 2025

Collected banners, acrylic, oil, metal rings, 530 x 300 cm

2 2 2 2 consists of street banners collected in Düsseldorf, stripped of their content through layers of acrylic. Folded and rolled into a sculptural arrangement, the work reflects both the interior and exterior of the exhibition space, a former metal factory

Keta Gavasheli (*Tbilisi, lives and works in Düsseldorf)

Untitled, 2025

Vinyl letters, Plexiglass, 2 m x 6.30 m

The window becomes a sheet of paper, a screen, a threshold. The word fragments of a performance, a memory, a return hover over this surface, barely visible, like breath exhaled against the glass. The text is not meant to be read. To linger here means to accept not fully understanding, and perhaps that is what comes closest to understanding.

The words come from the closing lines of a performance text, a personal reflection on memory, disorientation, and the impossibility of a complete return. Scattered letters and sentences fade like half-remembered thoughts. The “O” suggests both an open mouth and a void. As in concrete poetry, the meaning here lies not only in the words but also in their rhythm. The window holds them like a fragile membrane between presence and absence, between seeing and not seeing.

Lia Sáile (*Ruhr region, lives and works in Munich)

(Re)tracing fragile futures, 2025

Video installation, loop, stereo

An oversized white patch of color lies like a forgotten island in the industrial hall. Stories near and far literally describe the floor, groping, moving; lines crisscross the surfaces and form hybrids of word and image. Violets wait, trembling in the wind; points of light set the surface undulating. Past, present, and future stretch across the island’s surface in handwritten and drawn forms. A process of questioning and storytelling unfolds anew again and again. Viewers are confronted with meditative images and lines that prompt them to reflect on their fears and longings.

Kai Werner Schmidt (*Erfurt, lives and works in Düsseldorf)

Hall 09, 2025

Installation, slide projector, 40 slides

The work explores the dialectic between a physical exhibition and its visual representation. Kai Werner Schmidt uses his photographs of Hall 09 and, with the help of AI, creates an exhibition within these installations and sculptures. He explores the possibilities and boundaries between human creativity and machine-generated imagery. In this process, AI is no longer merely a tool but a collaborative partner in a creative, experimental dialogue. In a rhythmic presentation of 40 images via slide projector, analog tradition merges with digital innovation. This raises the question of authenticity in the digital age: what is real and what is a deepfake?
In “The Reconfigured Eye,” a seminal work on this topic, architect and media theorist William John Mitchell noted in 1992 that digitization leads to a “derealization of the photographic world.”

Gustavo Gomes (*São Paulo, lives and works in Cologne)

Tintinnabulum, 2025

Performance, duration 30 min

Tintinnabulum is a performance that explores the porous boundaries between masculinity and vulnerability through movement, the spoken word, and sound. Inspired by the ancient Roman amulet—a bronze erect penis adorned with bells, believed to ward off evil—Gomes revisits this symbol to question softness in a world that demands masculine hardness. The piece imagines a love story between a stoic soldier and a foreign visitor, tracing their evolving connection through trust, tension, and devotion. Bells attached to a suspended speaker and the performer’s body create a soundscape of attraction and friction that envelops the space in a sensory, shifting environment. Tintinnabulum is a blend of narrative, history, and personal research conducted in Germany, France, Armenia, Georgia, and Brazil, and forms part of Gomes’ ongoing documentary practice. It transforms the stage into a space where sound, sensuality, and the politics of masculinity converge, inviting a reflection on intimacy, vulnerability, and societal expectations. At its core, the project is a study of physical expression in which softness, exposure, and full presence become an act of resistance and hope.