October 05, 2026
What inspires us: Special exhibition by LBBW Collection at ART COLOGNE 2026
Historical works by the Hölzel Circle are juxtaposed with contemporary perspectives on identity, the environment, digitalisation and social change.
Featuring works by:
- Yalda Afsah
- Robert Elfgen
- Andreas Greiner
- Adolf Hölzel
- Ida Kerkovius
- Jody Korbach
- Jonas Roßmeißl
- Mona Schulzek
- Noemi Strittmatter
- Sophia Süßmilch
- Julius von Bismarck
- Ivana de Vivanco
- Felix Wagner
- and others
Curated by Barbara Thomann, curator of the LBBW Collection
What defines our present can rarely be put into words immediately. It is often artists who bring to light social moods, upheavals, and experiences early on – art thus becomes a mirror of the questions that shape our times, sometimes clearly and directly, sometimes veiled, fragmented, or unsettling. The special exhibition “What Moves Us” at the 59th ART COLOGNE features a selection of such works.
The LBBW Collection traces its art-historical origins to the Stuttgart-based Hölzel Circle. With works by Adolf Hölzel and Ida Kerkovius, who played a decisive role in shaping the dawn of Modernism in Germany, the current LBBW began its collecting activities in the 1970s. The works by Hölzel and Kerkovius shown here reflect the era in which they were created and simultaneously serve as the starting point for a dialogue with the present: they reveal what has changed and what continues to resonate today.
All other works on display are new acquisitions from the past two years. Half a century after the LBBW Collection’s beginnings, they reflect a present in which central social issues are emerging with renewed urgency. The special exhibition “What Moves Us” brings together contemporary artistic perspectives that explore central themes of our time while also highlighting the seven focal points of the LBBW Collection established in 2018: identity and cultural memory, economization, digitalization, the power of language, the aestheticization of everyday life, strategies of image appropriation, and the environment and sustainability.
Beverage labels serve as the source material for Jody Korbach’s work “From Our Fires,” in which she questions the culture of remembrance and the power of media images — as a mirror of collective ideas and political narratives. Mona Schulzek combines art and astronomy into a cosmic visual language that bridges earthly and extraterrestrial space, in which gazing at the sky simultaneously becomes a gaze at ourselves. Yalda Afsah’s video work “Jarramplas” explores the social impact of rituals and the roles of masculinity, belonging, and power negotiated within them. Julius von Bismarck’s “Philodendron bipinnatifidum,” in turn, addresses representations of nature, appropriation, and colonial notions of the exotic. Set against the backdrop of environmental issues and sustainability, this work holds up a critical mirror to our image of “nature.”
Together, these and other works invite viewers to reflect on their own present — with its discontinuities, overlaps, and blind spots. The LBBW Collection embodies the bank’s cultural commitment and its dedication to social responsibility. The special exhibition “What Moves Us” presents a focused selection of themes that shape our times and, by extension, the LBBW Collection.
The LBBW Collection
With more than 3,000 works, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) possesses one of Germany’s largest corporate collections of modern and contemporary art. The LBBW Collection looks back on a history spanning more than 50 years and brings together artistic voices of national and international renown.
The collection was founded in 1971 with the aim of promoting art and enabling the bank’s staff to experience aspects of the contemporary art scene in their immediate working environment. The starting point was the Stuttgart-based Hölzel Circle, centred around Adolf Hölzel, Oskar Schlemmer, Ida Kerkovius and Willi Baumeister. Building on the influential movements of south-west Germany, the collection has been progressively expanded since the 1990s to include contemporary German and international works.
Today, under the guiding principle of ‘Collecting Contemporary’, LBBW collects outstanding works produced in Germany or by German artists over the past decade. With an open, intermedia approach, the collection encompasses all artistic media – from painting, drawing and photography to sculpture, media art and large-scale installations.
To make works from the collection accessible to the public, LBBW utilises a variety of presentation and outreach formats. These include thematically conceived trade fair appearances, collaborations with partner institutions, an international loan scheme and its own exhibitions. In January 2027, a comprehensive institutional presentation of the LBBW Collection will be on display at the Kunsthalle Mainz, followed in May 2027 by an exhibition at the main site in Stuttgart as part of the International Building Exhibition 2027. In this way, the LBBW Collection makes art accessible, fosters dialogue on current social issues and continually opens up new perspectives.
See you at ART COLOGNE from 5 to 8 November 2026, in Hall 11.2, Stand B 319!
Do you have any questions? Contact us!
