On the Volcano

In the second half of 2024, Ludwig Forum Aachen critically reflects on its own collections, especially in light of socio-political and technological change currently facing our world, related questions of justice and freedom within our global community, and the grave challenges posed by climate change. Five exhibition, collection, and research projects focusing on works of art from the 1960s through to the 1990s—predominantly loans and gifts from the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation—provide insight into the museum’s current areas of research. The individual presentations not only reconstruct historical contexts, but establish links to contemporary discourses and issues.

On the Volcano, the title of the collection presentation, is borrowed from one of Franz Erhard Walther’s Wortbilder (Word Pictures), a device used by the artist to open up spaces of reflection that viewers could then fill with meaning and content using their own thoughts. The paraphrased metaphor “to dance on the lip of a volcano” goes back to an observation made by French statesman and publicist Narcisse-Achille de Salvandy on the eve of the 1830 July Revolution to describe risky, almost naïve behavior in the face of impending disaster. Relating this imagery to our reappraisal of the collections at Ludwig Forum enables us to critically plot the crucial upheavals and the divisive conflicts that mark our present (until January 12, 2025).

With works by Jean-Michel Alberola, Paweł Althamer, Belkis Ayón, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Erik Bulatov, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Walter Dahn, Fischli/Weiss, Wang Guangyi, Richard Hamilton, Duane Hanson, Joan Jonas, Robert Kushner, Thomas Lanigan-Schmidt, Roy Lichtenstein, Nadenka Creative Association, Bruce Nauman, Hilka Nordhausen, Dan Perjovschi, Raymond Pettibon, Lady Pink (Sandra Fabara), Robert Rauschenberg, Rissa, Ulrike Rosenbach, James Rosenquist, Mikołaj Sobczak, telewissen, José Toirac, Franz Erhard Walther, Andy Warhol, Annette Wehrmann, Ai Weiwei, Garry Winogrand.

Terrestrial Perspectives brings together artworks that open up multifaceted perspectives on the interaction between humans and their environment. The exhibition commences with Land Art from the late 1960s and presents works that share an interest in engaging with the Earth’s surface: from creative and conceptual approaches to contemporary perspectives on local and global structures and practices of land use, extractivism, and exploitation (until October 27, 2024).

With works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Betty Beaumont, Boyle Family, Lucy Davis (Migrant Ecologies Projects), Danielle Dean, Rackstraw Downes, Paula Erstmann, Mónica Giron, Nancy Graves, Michael Heizer, Irmel Kamp, Barbara & Michael Leisgen, Richard Long, Algirdas Milleris, Wolfgang Nestler, Arjuna Neuman & Denise Ferreira da Silva, Jüri Okas, Ramón Pacheco Salazar, Silke Schatz, Transformella cinis lützerathi.

Fragments of a Reality That Once Was. Encounters with Ukraine in the Ludwig Collection marks the start of a repositioning of the some 1800 paintings, sculptures, and graphic works from the former Soviet Union and Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe that were acquired by Irene and Peter Ludwig between 1979 and 1996. The first exhibition examines artworks with ties to Ukraine. Imprecise categorization and contextualization are revised in an effort to do justice to the diversity and complexity of a region that has recently been rocked by tensions, violence, and war (until October 27, 2024).

With works by Sergey Anufriev, Volodymyr Budnikov, Mykola Filatov, Sergey Geta, Evgeni Gordiets, Eduard Gorochovskij, Ilya Kabakov, Andrij Kocka, Yuri Leiderman und Andrey Silvestrov, Jurij Luckevič, Petro Markovič, Anatolij Mašarov, Daniel Mitljanskij, Vera Morozova, Halyna Neledva, Oleh Petrenko, Arkadij Petrov, Larisa Rezun-Zvezdočetova, Viktor Ryžich, Lyudmila Skypkina, Oleksandr Tyšler, Leonid Vojcechov.

The Restoration Laboratory Nam June Paik focuses on the legendary three-part multimonitor installation Earth, Moon, Sun (1990) by Nam June Paik (1932–2006). Placed in a dialogue with other video works by the artist from the Ludwig Forum’s collections, this project provides insight into selected video works by this pioneer of media art from our collection as well as into the restauration of his artwork Earth, Moon, Sun (ongoing).

With Training the Archive – Lab, Ludwig Forum presents a research project on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI), its possibilities and risks, and automated learning procedures in the curatorial indexing and analysis of collections (ongoing).

For further details on our exhibition and event program, please visit our website.