Kunsthaus Göttingen

Kunsthaus Göttingen is an exhibition space in Göttingen, Germany. Its focus is on contemporary art for works on paper, photography, and new media with an international emphasis. The Kunsthaus is part of KuQua (Kunstquartier Göttingen, Göttingen Art Quarter).

History
The Kunsthaus project was initiated by the publisher Gerhard Steidl. and was realized with local and federal government support. The building had its topping out ceremony at the end of September 2019, and was completed in December 2020. The originally estimated total cost was €5,874,000, of which three-quarters was financed by federal funds from the "National Projects of Urban Development" funding program, The final cost was put at "6.5 to 7 million euros" by Göttingen's mayor.

On June 4, 2021, the Kunsthaus opened with a solo exhibition by the artist Roni Horn titled ''Roni Horn. You are the weather''.

Management
The start-up phase of the Kunsthaus was managed by Alfons von Uslar, who was Honorary Founding Managing Director from 2020 to June 2022, and by Ute Eskildsen, retired curator of the Folkwang Museum in Essen, who advised on the building planning and organised the first two exhibitions. As of February 2023, Dr. Dorle Meyer leads the Kunsthaus's operations as Managing Director and the Curator Lotte Dinse has been responsible for content since 2023. In the early years, as honorary director, Gerhard Steidl supported the house with curation.

Architecture
At the end of 2015, after several years of preparations, the city of Göttingen, as the building owner, launched an architectural competition, chaired by Jórunn Ragnarsdóttir, in which 15 architectural firms participated, including two from abroad. The winners of the first prize, the architects of Atelier30 (in Kassel), later withdrew due to artistic conflicts, so the winner of the second prize, Atelier ST from Leipzig, was assigned. In 2017, Berlin landscape architect Stefan Bernard won the competition for the design of the inner courtyard.



The completed, externally three-story Kunsthaus is based on historic Göttingen half-timbered houses in its closed construction, the building cubature, the gable roof as a roof form, and the floors that project twice toward the top. The linear structure of the horizontal modeling plaster is intended to be reminiscent of "stacked papers".



The courtyard measures around 1,300 square meters. On the south side of the inner courtyard lies the "House of Words" pavilion, which opened shortly after the Kunsthaus in the summer of 2021. Inside is the installation Poet Singing (The Flowering Sheets) by the American artist Jim Dine - donated to the city of Göttingen by the artist.



Exhibitions


The exhibition focus of the Kunsthaus is on current positions of international contemporary art. Four exhibitions a year are hosted.

As a partner project of documenta fifteen, the Kunsthaus opened a group exhibition titled Printing futures from June 18 to September 25, 2022, which presented internationally known artists such as Dayanita Singh, Theseus Chan and Shahidul Alam. Göttingen's mayor Petra Broistedt evaluated the cooperation with documenta as a milestone for Göttingen as a cultural location.

A video project by Sebastian Stumpf documenting the building's construction is on permanent display.

Förderkreis Kunsthaus Göttingen e.V.
In the spring of 2023, a registered association in support of the Kunsthaus' activities was founded: "Förderkreis Kunsthaus Göttingen e.V.". It was initiated by Rolf-Georg Köhler (retired mayor) and Alfons v. Uslar (former founding managing director of the Kunsthaus).