Participating artists:Jana Ehls, Jonas Erler, Benjamin Friedle, Takeki Hayashida, Lucie Löchel, Anita Orlarescu, Heidi Specker, Stephen Stahn
Venue:Käthe Kollwitz Museum Cologne
Neumarkt 18-24
50667 Köln
www.kollwitz.de/RE: stands for ‘regarding’ [English], meaning ‘to refer to’ – and at the same time for ‘further reflection’ and ‘reinterpretation’. During the 2025/26 academic year, Heidi Specker’s photography class at the HGB Leipzig engaged intensively with ‘Re: Kollwitz’. The result is 19 works in various media – ranging from sculpture to photography, film and installation. Eight of these works are now on display as part of the ‘Bildstörung’ series at the Kollwitz Museum in Cologne.
The works approach her from different perspectives: Kollwitz as an artist, as a woman, as a contemporary witness or as a politically engaged individual. They draw on her body of work, her artistic techniques, as well as her personal accounts in diaries, letters and photographs.
The result is a range of interpretations that are personal without remaining private. Some draw on Kollwitz’s visual language or motifs, whilst others examine the material conditions of her creative process, the person behind the work, or gaps in her oeuvre. What unites them is the attempt not merely to view Kollwitz through a historical lens, but to re-examine her themes and her stance from a contemporary perspective.
As much as Käthe Kollwitz’s works stand alone in their expression and message, a look at both history and the present clearly shows how deeply her work is embedded in an ongoing artistic dialogue. This dialogue ranges from a general thematic, motivic and technical affinity with the works of other artists from every century to specific references to Käthe Kollwitz by later generations.
In our new exhibition series ‘Bildstörung’, we present works by artists who interact with Kollwitz’s works in various ways. Embedded within the presentation of the collection and set in direct juxtaposition, parallels become apparent on the one hand, whilst at the same time familiar perspectives are challenged, new associations are allowed to emerge and discourses are broadened.
Heide Specker’s photography class at the HGB Leipzig is the second instalment in this
series.
