2x2 Art Fair for Outsider Art

21.-24 September

The art fair and all events are public and free.

         Opening of the Art Fair:
         Thursday, 21. September

         Stephan Dransfeld, Director Alexianer Münster
         Frauke Schnell, Director Kulturamt Stadt Münster
         Lisa Inckmann, Director of the Kunsthaus Kannen

         Music: KlangWerk- die Werkstattband, Bersenbrück
         Performance: MaRiechen, Lidy Mouw

 11:00 - 17:00:  Art Fair

Exhibitors:

Alanus Hochschule / Bonn, DE
Atelier Markus Meurer / Kleve, DE
Atelier Strichstärke / Mönchengladbach, DE
Atelier de la Tour / Treffen, AT
Galerie Kijkoor / Eemnes, NL
Hans-Prinzhorn-Klinik / Hemer, DE
Kulturbahnhof Bramsche / DE
KunstContainer / Osnabrück, DE
KunstRaum / Nürnberg, DE
KunstWerk Atelier / Gütersloh, DE
Kunstwerkstatt Eben-Ezer / Lemgo, DE
Kunstwerkstatt Gmunden / AT
Kunstwerkstatt 18 / Hamburg-Ochsenzoll, DE
L'Art en Marche / Lapalisse, FR
Offenes Atelier Lippstadt / Lippstadt, DE
Offenes Atelier St. Hedwig / Berlin, DE
Art Obert Sinia / Barcelona, ES
Team struber_gruber / Vienna, AT
Thikwa- Werkstatt für Theater und Kunst / Berlin, DE
Zinnober Kunstverein / Magdeburg, DE

Art fair/lectures/discussion/theatre
Art accompanies and mirrors our reality. Kunsthaus Kannen came into being out of the wish to let people in all kinds of constitutions and situations actively take part in art and culture. For more than 30 years now the Kunsthaus has been a place where Outsider Art and contemporary art are being fostered, presented and collected.

In 2017 the 2x2 Forum for Outsider Art, an art fair of international caliber, is taking place for the fifth time. Having arisen from the 2009 EU-subsidized Projekt KULTUR, every two years the forum invites artists, studios, galleries, universities and projects from contexts of art, social affairs and psychiatry to engage in dialogue and exchange of ideas concerning Outsider Art. We hope to extend existing networks of creators, mediators and collectors and to further deepen the discussion on art and marginality. This year’s forum will feature regional exhibitors as well as participants from our European neighbors. Some of them have been frequent guests, such as Atelier Markus Meurer and KunstContainer from Osnabrück. Presenting themselves for the first time are Atelier Strichstärke from Lemgo, Art Obert Sinia from Barcelona, the Berlin Thikwa Workshop for Theater and Art. Also present with a booth are the artists Gruber and Struber from Vienna, who in cooperation with the Kunsthaus developed an art project for the NS-Euthanasia Memorial Waldniel.

Today Outsider Art has arrived on the big art markets. Participation in the “operating system” of art has to a large extent evolved into natural participation. Several pioneers have anchored themselves in cultural memory and certain tendencies which are parallel to the 20th century avant-garde have become part of that same memory. Today there is no more strict separation of Outsider Art and contemporary art. Still, one can ask how extensive is this convergence, what has been settled already and what distinctions are there between this new center and newly emerging margins? At the periphery and between the centers there are artworks being made, ideas and new formats being developed, which still require in both handling and mediation a special sensitivity.

The 2x2 Forum is a European platform which places its focus on the direct encounter of all protagonists, with the artists and art itself. At the same time as the Forum the 5th <link www.skulptur-projekte.de - external-link-new-window>Münster Skulptur Projekte</link> are also happening, with artworks influenced by our global present and the relationship of private and public space in times of digitalization. With regard to this expanded background, we will together explore the question of what is the international State of the (Outsider) Art.

This year’s general program of lectures, theater and art projects has been designed around the increasing interest in marginal and obscure phenomena, in main and side-ways of art. The cast of Lidy Mouw from Amsterdam will accompany the opening with a performance. Artists with and without disability deal with the smell of the so-called Anthropocene, the age shaped by man, as part of the project MaRiechen.

Furthermore duch artist Rince de Jong will present her film project „Zij zijn“ (They are), which premiered in January, the project was produced during her time as "life coach" for people with mental disabilities. By becoming part of the daily routine and enviroment of the People Rince de Jong has created an oeuvre that is loving, honest, pure, and direct.

On each day we will start off with a lecture in the Wasserturm Hotel on the Alexianer Grounds. Britta Peters, Curator of Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017, will give a lecture on the topic of periphery and boundary phenomena in contemporary art. In his lecture the art scholar, journalist and musician <link www.joergscheller.de/&gt;Jörg Scheller</link> goes to the question,  ifwe still can speak of "Outsiders" or "Outsider Art" in times of hybridisation - or if the outside is becomming the inside.

After the lecture by Britta Peters the program will continue with a panel discussion, led by Dr. phil. Thomas Röske, director of the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg. Together with Sylvia May, art therapist in the forensic Psychiatry Hamburg-Ochsenzoll, Ferdinand Reisenbichler, artistic director of the Kunstwerkstatt Gmunden and Prof. Dr. Dieter Seifert, medical director of the Alexianer Campus in Münster, he will be discussing the state and condition of art and what it tells us about society. Next to others, main topics will be the social responsibility of art and the position of art in the modern market.

On one evening the experimental ensemble Schattengelenk T invites to the premiere at the Studiobühne in Münster. They will present a play about silence.

At the opening the director of the Münster Municipal Office for Culture, Frauke Schnell, the director of Alexianer Münster PLC, Stephan Dransfeld and the director of Kunsthaus Kannen, Lisa Inckmann, will give a short welcoming speech. Britta Peters, curator of Skulptur Projekte Münster 2017, will introduce into the subject of “Outsider Art today” with her lecture.

The art fair and all associated events are public and free; we are looking forward to your visit.

The Forum is being realized with funds from the <link www.alexianer-muenster.de/home/&gt;Alexianer Münster PLC</link>, the <link www.muenster.de/kultur.html - external-link-new-window>city of Münster</link> and Aktion Mensch.

Photo Gallery

Film of the 2x2 Forum

Book + DVD about the forums 2009 / 2011 is 12,-€