The Strauss department stores' chain seems unable to shake off the crisis. After the first insolvency application last year, the second application has now been filed with the Düsseldorf district court" (Quote: Handelsblatt online, 16 September 2016)
with Julia Gräb, Tobias Hoffknecht, René Hüls, Steffen Jopp, Lukas Julius Keijser, Sophie Killer, Wanda Koller, Atit Sornsongkram
Curator: Wilko Austermann
28.01.2017 – 19.02.2017
We would like to thank Erbengemeinschaft Meese, Friedrichstraßen Interessengemeinschaft e.V., Klüh Multiservices, Menzels Lokschuppen & Töff-Töff GmbH and members of 701 e.V. for their kind support.
Here are some short contributions to the exhibition opening:
https://www.xity.de/nachrichten/Ausstellung_{5a3602acafbee8c775c25ad13b69146437812f977f4b06fabb1751235b651d6c}26quot{5a3602acafbee8c775c25ad13b69146437812f977f4b06fabb1751235b651d6c}3BStrauss_ist_raus{5a3602acafbee8c775c25ad13b69146437812f977f4b06fabb1751235b651d6c}26quot{5a3602acafbee8c775c25ad13b69146437812f977f4b06fabb1751235b651d6c}3B_id3608331.html
www.fernsehen-duesseldorf.tv (Suchbegriff: Strauss ist raus)
https://fashionunited.de/nachrichten/kultur/ausstellung-strauss-ist-raus-beschaeftigt-sich-mit-veraenderungen-im-einzelhandel/2017020721738
The shop of the Strauss Innovation department stores’ chain at Friedrichstr. 61c, Düsseldorf, was closed down this year. The empty shop was made available to the association 701 e.V. for an exhibition from 27 January to 19 February 2017.
The theme of Strauss ist raus will also be taken up in terms of content, i.e. the former shop of the Strauss Innovation department stores’ chain will become part of the exhibition.
In recent years, the consumer behaviour of the population has changed considerably. Products are ordered via the internet and manual labour is being replaced by highly complex machines. The result of this change is empty shops and the restructuring of department stores. The participating artists take up the theme of emptiness and the change in the economy in their works. In this way, the various positions merge with the empty Strauss shop in terms of content. I got the idea of emptiness from the series Display by artist Atit Sornsongkram, who photographed unused shop windows in the cityscape. In this series, it becomes clear that the last day of use, with the traces left behind, becomes a display object for a long time. All the artists in the exhibition take up the theme of emptiness, change in the economy and business.
Julia Gräb (born 1991) is studying at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Eberhard Havekost. In her photographic works, the artist deals with empty buildings and their abandonment, which she finds fascinating. Gräb travels a lot to capture originally used places and their abstract effect in the photograph. In her works, she shows the transformation of used architecture and the traces left behind by people.
Tobias Hoffknecht (born 1987) studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Rosemarie Trockel. The artist uses formerly used objects such as chairs and shelves and presents them in a different context. He takes the functionality out of the objects and presents the remaining abstract sculpture in a different context.
René Hüls (born 1973) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Nuremberg and at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Tony Cragg. In his works, Hüls takes up the changes in the economy and communication in posthumanism. For the exhibition, Hüls is creating a work with which he refers to existing drawers in the shop and processes them sculpturally.
Steffen Jopp (born 1991) studied at the TU Dortmund with a focus on printmaking under Prof. Bettina van Haaren and Wolfgang Pilz and is now at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in the class of Gregor Schneider. In his works, Jopp deals with vibrations of music and the connection with previously industrially used objects. The artist is showing a room-sized sculpture made from a formerly used conveyor belt, which visualises the production of goods and their sale.
Lukas Julius Keijser (born 1973) studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and at the Udk Berlin. In his works, Keijser deals with social media and today’s consumer world. He uses screen prints to make shop performances that are intended to question consumer behaviour. These prints are produced on site and sold at the printed value of the goods. For the exhibition, the artist will respond to the vacancy by staging an organic-vegan shop. The printed local products will be presented and sold.
Wanda Koller (b0rn 1988) studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Hubert Kiecol and Rita Mc Bride. The artist develops site-specific installations made of plaster in which she reacts to her surroundings. Koller works processually and will present formerly used materials from the department stores’ in her work. In doing so, she refers to the history of the former shop. With actress Sophie Killer (b.1991), Koller will stage a dance performance that will relate to the consumption of goods and the transformation of retail. Sophie Killer studied at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Bochum and at the Tanzfabrik in Berlin. In 2015 she won the Folkwang Prize for the dance piece EINER TANZT AUS DER REIHE, which she choreographed and which was performed at the FTZ Bochum and the i-camp Theater Munich.
Atit Sornsongkram (born 1981) studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy with Hubert Kiecol and Andreas Gursky. In the series Display, the artist’s interest in vacant properties and their clear cubic structure is evident. The space is like a time capsule whose last use is present for a while and becomes a pictorial object through the artist’s intervention.