The Ju­lia Stoschek Col­lec­tion

The Ju­lia Stoschek Col­lec­tion is both an archive of art and a space for re­flect­ing on so­ci­ety as it ex­hib­its rel­ev­ant in­stall­a­tions and me­dia art­work in a his­tor­ic­al fact­ory build­ing in Ober­kas­sel on the left bank of the river Rhine that will only un­fold their en­tire po­ten­tial in time. These works form in­de­pend­ent points of view in­ten­ded for long peri­ods of time. Dur­a­tion mat­ters for them, as pat­ron and pas­sion­ate col­lect­or Ju­lia Stoschek her­self puts it.

She has already brought together around 900 exhibits by about 300 contemporary artists for her popular exhibition quarter since it was opened in 2007. The number keeps growing all the time. Guests approaching the modern art warehouse, outwardly characterised by its palace-like architecture and large window fronts, today can look forward to a collection of film, video, and sound works, as well as some performance, computer, and software-based art.

Audiovisual aspects have been important to her all her life, says Stoschek. The German entrepreneur aims to introduce visitors interested in socio-political, narrative, or performative art to “time-based art production” from the 1960s to this day with her collection. She does so in cooperation with galleries, institutions, and workshops from the region, across Germany, and around the world, allowing the collection to grow along with its exhibitors and to reflect their evolving practice.

Beyond this, her concept’s success is rooted in incorporating early modern industrial architecture, repeatedly merging into a greater whole with individual exhibition elements. This is the first time that guests can stroll through long corridors of images in the 3,000-square-metre space for thought before eventually dropping into the world of film in a large hall with clearly defined lines and shapes. Brightness on site also plays a role, depending on exhibit. The team will select the locations for individual works in presentations to match the available lighting conditions.

Another thing worth mentioning is that a separate cinema is part of the building completed in 1907. It has served as a stage workshop, a production facility for ladies’ corsets, and a picture frame factory in the past century. Guests will ideally follow up on their visit with an excursion to the banks of the river Rhine or another house of art. The K20 of the Kunstsammlung NRW and the Düsseldorf Kunstpalast are both about a 35 minutes’ walk away.