Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren will open three projects on Saturday, 25 July, presenting new exhibitions and a youth installation across three floors of the institution. The programme brings together Julia Lübbecke’s ‘Zärtlichkeit, Zins & Zusammenbruch. Über den Körper als erschöpfte Ressource’ in the Saal, Nicola Reiter’s ‘Aftərmähdag’ in the Speicher, and ‘KinderKunstNatur’, a presentation of the results of ‘experiment:KUNST’, in the foyer. The opening is scheduled for 4 pm and admission is free.
In the Saal, Lübbecke’s exhibition is described as her first institutional solo show in southern Germany and as the first time the Kunsthaus will present together the bodies of work ‘Kleber und Falten’, ‘Weiche Knie’ and ‘Slight Discomfort’, adapted for the venue. Her sculptural installations combine archival materials, photography, text, objects and video, and the exhibition focuses on relationships between archive, knowledge, power and emotion. The Kunsthaus says the project also raises current questions about how the value of people is linked to their ability to work.
According to the institution, Lübbecke’s practice examines representations of feminized labour, institutional violence in medicine and struggles for bodily self-determination. For the Kaufbeuren presentation, her research extends to the relationship between human dignity, work and the stigmatization of incapacity to work. The exhibition draws on archive and library research and asks how power relations are inscribed both in archival collections and in bodies, with particular interest in the relation between informational content and the affective dimension of knowledge.
On the Speicher floor, Nicola Reiter’s long-term project ‘Aftərmähdag’ traces changes in agriculture in the Oberallgäu. Reiter has been showing the project at Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren since March 2026, and the next phase begins at the end of July with additional material added to the installation. These additions include photographs of former and repurposed barns and portraits of younger-generation farmers, alongside a research table with private found objects and references from art and science.
The Kunsthaus says Reiter’s work connects situated knowledge from her own living environment with artistic research. Since 2020, she has made photographs on walks around her home region, recording traces of agricultural labour. Through images and conversations with farming families, the project examines structures and transformations in working life as well as the relationship between people, livestock and cultivated landscapes. The installation is intended to continue developing in parallel with the agricultural season into late autumn.
In the foyer, ‘KinderKunstNatur’ presents the results of ‘experiment:KUNST’, a cooperation with the youth art school querKUNST. Children and young people explored the Kunsthaus, visited artists’ studios and workshops, and developed their own works from that experience. The resulting installation engages with nature, environment, perception and the connections between humans and nature. A guided tour of the exhibitions is planned for Thursday, 6 August, at 6 pm, with admission priced at €5, or €3 reduced. Additional tours for groups and school classes are available by prior request.
