Substantial Changes at KAI 10: Experience Materiality and Change in Contemporary Art
Date and Time
Location
Price
About this Event
Mood
Venue Type
Substantial Changes: When Materials Become Co-authors
With the opening of Substantial Changes, KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION in Düsseldorf presents an international group exhibition on the materiality and environmental sustainability of contemporary art. Dana-Fiona Armour, Julian Charrière, Liza Dieckwisch, Julia Gruner, Vera Kox, Elsa Salonen, and Diana Scherer investigate how art production changes in the face of digital, ecological, and socio-political upheavals.
Art between Nature, Technology, and Process
The exhibition focuses on the nature of artistic materials and processes. Boundaries between natural and artificial, organic and inorganic are in motion. Materials react, change color and consistency, and develop their own temporality. This transforms the artwork experience into an aesthetic experience about change, dependence, and shared responsibility.
Poetic Materials with Their Own Dynamics
Julian Charrière connects a wall-mounted vending machine with infinity mirrors, lighting, and fossils in Spiral Economy. Diana Scherer's Apical #18 is created from a grown textile made of roots, soil, and red fabric. Elsa Salonen processes fragments of trees and animal bones from Finnish forests into distilled and ground colors. Liza Dieckwisch works with agar-agar, gelatin, glycerin, bioglitter, oysters, algae, and food coloring in I ate your mermaid II.
Curatorial Perspectives on a Changing World
Curated by Ludwig Seyfarth and Julia Katharina Tiemann, the exhibition connects material research, installation, sculpture, and process-based art. The involved positions understand artistic work not solely as the outcome of individual authorship. The focus is on collaborations, more-than-human actors, and processes that cannot be fully controlled.
Art Experience in the Media Harbor
In the former warehouse at Düsseldorf's Media Harbor, the works unfold in an exhibition atmosphere where organic structures, technical elements, transparent surfaces, and geological traces meet. KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION has been providing space for thematic group exhibitions of international contemporary art since 2008 and enhances the presentations with guided tours, publications, and cultural educational offerings.
Accompanying Program and Visit
The opening will take place on Thursday, December 3, 2026, at 7 PM. During the exhibition, public tours are scheduled for 3 PM on announced dates. The exhibition will be on view from December 4, 2026, to June 13, 2027, and is accessible free of charge during regular opening hours.
Conclusion: Materiality as Sensory Knowledge
Substantial Changes invites you to experience contemporary art not just as image or object but as a living process. The exhibition connects art historical reflection, ecological questions, and sensory examination of artworks into an intense art experience. Those who wish to immediately experience the aesthetic engagement with new materials and future-oriented art production should attend the opening and the subsequent exhibition at KAI 10 in Düsseldorf.
Official Channels of KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION:
- Instagram: official profile via the KAI 10 website
- Website: KAI 10 | ARTHENA FOUNDATION
