Center for Current Art - Two-Way Traffic

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Center for Current Art - Oncoming Traffic eV was an art association in Aachen . It was headed by Klaus Honnef and existed from 1968 to 1972.

history

In June 1968 the journalist and culture editor of Aachener Nachrichten Klaus Honnef, the gallery owner Will Kranenpohl, the artists Rune Mields and Benno Werth and other like-minded people founded the "Center for Current Art - Oncoming Traffic eV". Two floors of a former architecture office in the rear building at Theaterstrasse 50 were rented as exhibition rooms . Honnef became the first chairman, the membership fee was set at DM 5 per month, and after the first exhibition, at which works by Peter Brüning were shown, the number of members rose to 330. “Oncoming traffic” stood for a completely new, different and non-commercial exhibition and communication program at the time.

program

Thanks to the good networking of Honnef, the many prominent members of the city's business, science and culture and at times over 500 members, exhibitions of current international art could take place. At film screenings in oncoming traffic , designed by Cyrus Kube and Rolf Thissen , German underground films and works by international experimental filmmakers were shown. Through progressive music performances and poetry readings, the association's rooms on Theaterstrasse became "... a place with an intense attitude towards life, an avant-garde meeting place, the importance of which extended far beyond the city limits."

In addition to the typical tube motifs by Rune Mields, Eat-Art by Daniel Spoerri and early nail pictures by Günther Uecker , pop-art pin-up girls by Mel Ramos and color compositions by Rupprecht Geiger were on display. In March and April 1969, Gerhard Richter had the first institutional exhibition in two-way traffic . He showed his newly created series of paintings Cityscapes .

"This avant-garde art association, which at times had 500 members, took on tasks on its own with its boldly improvised exhibition program that broke the provincial tightness, for which there were no public institutions in Aachen at that time [...]."

The center for current art - two-way traffic existed until 1972. The initiator and driving force behind the association, Klaus Honnef, was appointed managing director of the Westphalian Art Association in Münster as early as 1970 .

Catalogs

  • Bernd Becher, Hilla Becher: Comparing technical constructions , two-way traffic, Aachen, Center for Current Art, Catalog 71.
  • Erich Reusch. Two-way traffic, Aachen, Center for Current Art, Catalog 6/70.
  • Allan d Arcangelo. Two-way traffic, Aachen, Center for Contemporary Art 69
  • Günther Uecker. Two-way traffic, Aachen, Center for Current Art 4/69

Exhibition about oncoming traffic eV

  • 2011: “Never again trouble-free! Aachen Avantgarde since 1964 ”in the Ludwig Forum

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wilhelm Schürmann : Klaus Honnef. König, Cologne 2009, ISBN 978-3-86560-723-2 , p. 25.
  2. ^ Das Antiquariat , Volume 19 Verlag W. Krieg, 1969, p. 4.
  3. ↑ The exhibition will never be trouble-free again! Aachen avant-garde since 1964.
  4. ^ List of works by Gerhard Richter
  5. ^ Hermann Weisweiler, Wolfgang Richter: Art City Aachen. Greven, 1977, ISBN 3-7743-0147-6 , p. 15.
  6. ↑ Never trouble-free again! Aachen avant-garde since 1964. Catalog. Kerber, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86678-602-8 .