The Heidenheim Art Museum is making a guest appearance in the rooms of Hellenstein Castle for the fourth time. The ‘Art in the Castle’ series is dedicated to a different sculptural material each year. After metals, wood and paper, the focus in 2024 will shift from singular materials to diverse combinations of materials..

Art developments in the 20th century have shown that essentially any material can be the starting point for an artistic work. In a radical way, Marcel Duchamp with his Ready Mades or the Italian Arte Povera, for example, made it clear that there is also aesthetic potential in non-art objects and items. However, it takes the creative skills of artists to give the everyday and the seemingly worthless a new form, transforming it and thereby sharpening the public’s perception.

When several of these objects are combined, the result is multi-faceted assemblages. The combination of several work components is an appealing theme for several reasons. Firstly, the audience can experience how differently artists deal with this approach. For some, only a few objects or their material properties, colours or surfaces are sufficient. The aesthetics of their materiality are taken out of their original context and combined with each other. Other artists think more in terms of familiar objects and their (pop-cultural) meanings and attributions. What happens when familiar symbols are reinterpreted or (critically) scrutinised?

Further strategies can lie in the integration of kinetic elements or in the arrangement and structuring of materials. Sorted by colour or size or set in motion, an object loses its usefulness and becomes a symbol.

Another attraction of the theme is the balancing act between recognition and alienation. The packaging of a particular sweet, for example, can usually be identified by visitors. When integrated into a larger work of art, however, attribution can become more difficult.
The question of the relevance of these attempts at identification then also arises. Is it even important from which context an object originates? Some works play with this uncertainty and spark the desire to discover.

A third, not insignificant aspect of the exhibition is the use of resources. In times of climate change, the use of materials that have already been utilised has not only an aesthetic value, but often also a content-related value. How do we deal with what we already have? Do new materials have to be produced for a work of art? How contemporary is that still?

The aim of the Re.Use exhibition is, on the one hand, to examine the diversity of artistic (re-)utilisation strategies. On the other hand, it is also a tribute to artistic creativity and the joy of combination.

With works by:
Nándor Angstenberger, Angela Ender, Michael Johansson, Hyunjeong Ko, Julia Miorin, Guido Weggenmann, Umut Yasat