Looking back

Zeljko Rusic - born in Croatia in 1967 and living in Königsfeld in the Black Forest since 1991 - is a sculptor in a very literal sense of the word. Rusic works with a chisel and chainsaw, always fastening his works from a single piece of wood.

This summer, in cooperation with the VAF Foundation, Museum Biedermann will present works by young Italian artists.The Frankfurt-based foundation was established in 2001 by entrepreneur Volker W. Feierabend whose business links with Italy kindled a passion for Italian art which he has been pursuing as a collector for the past thirty years.

On the occasion of the Homeland Days, hosted jointly this year by Donaueschingen, Hüfingen and Bräunlingen, Reiner Ecke, Klaus Münch and Paul Schwer have been invited to create an artistic record of the Brigach over the course of year, as it flows from the Christuskirche to the Museum Biedermann.

The new exhibition at Museum Biedermann invites visitors to discover a broad spectrum of contemporary young art. Sixteen scholars of the Kunststiftung Baden-Württemberg (Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation) present work ranging from photography, collage, painting and drawing to sculpture and installation.

Entering into a direct dialogue with the inhabitants of Donaueschingen, Museum Biedermann is collecting delicious homemade cakes, pickles and preserves in its temporary larder.

The four artists combine different natural materials such as wood, stone or felt into symbolic primordial forms. Their pared down yet sensual sculptures and objects reference life and the creativity and transience of man and nature.

When you hear the word vegetation, you think of plants and how they grow. In "Vegetations" from the artist Jo Winter, you will also be confronted by different, abstract implementations and forms of plants and plant life: buds, tree sections and complete, stylised trees.

As the Donaueschingen Horse Show reaches one of its high spots when the four-in-hand marathon drives spectacularly through the Brigach, it is no surprise for regular visitors to the show to see a photographer standing in the middle of the water hazard calmly taking photographs, apparently unperturbed by what is going on around him.

"Solid craftsmanship is certainly the foundation for the uniqueness of Hubert Rieber's work. Equally fascinating is the rigour of his formal vocabulary. Rieber's works stand in a sculptural tradition that brings together the human figure and geometric abstract form.

Bent, forged, cut, soldered, polished to a mirror finish or engraved, metal stirs the imagination of the five sculptors presented in the new exhibition at Museum Biedermann and is key to their creative practice.

Characteristic of the room-consuming work of Andreas Kocks, Sebastian Kuhn, Reiner Seliger and Nunzio is the intense struggle with different materials, with classical and contemporary principles of shape as well as the idea of the dynamic and the static.

The opening exhibition gives a first look into the treasure trove that is the Biedermann Collection.
Some 50 works will be on show from 26 international, contemporary artists, displayed in themed groups, which will guide the visitor through the exhibition rooms, on a journey of discovery that is both artistic in content and rich in atmosphere and suspense.