becoming / what if?
this episode:
alice musiol
artist, köln

in his ‚becoming‘ series, martin eugen raabenstein interviews artists, art professionals and art enthusiasts about their opinions and ideas on various aspects of the art market and its current presentation practices.

alice musiol’s multimedia cosmos spans drawing, object art, and installation, exploring in diverse ways the relationship between figure and space. her sensitive approach, at times presented with a subtle touch of dark humor, precisely creates this delicate oscillation where the artistically formulated question hovers around the audience as a quiet presence, without leaning towards exaggerated obviousness.

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nice to have you with us. would you like to introduce yourself?

my name is alice musiol, i am a visual artist, born in 1971 in katowice, poland, and i live and work in cologne.

you are the new artistic director of a renowned art gallery – you have a lot of exhibition space and an even larger budget at your disposal. how would you plan your first year in office?

that’s really a difficult question. i’m not a professional curator and would probably first consider exhibition concepts that i would like to see more often in institutions, somewhat away from the current discourse. for example, it could be a cross-generational presentation of artists whose drawings i admire, or an exhibition on the theme of silence.

what would be your main goals?

precisely that cross-generational approach, preferably on universal themes, and above all, free admission. fees for all participating living artists would be important, including insurance for the works. i would also want to include unknown artists as well as autodidacts, with broad coverage and professional mediation.

can you explain this in more detail with the help of a project, an idea?

for the mentioned theme of silence, professionally working artists could freely apply with their concepts, and a selected jury would then put together the project.

which artistic positions are of particular interest to you in this context?

the authenticity of an artistic position.

what are your all-time favorites in the visual arts?

if i had to expand: the carceri by piranesi, the hospital drawings by barbara hepworth, marlene dumas, silvia bächli, the drawings by a.r. penck from the 1960s, felix droese, philip guston, bill traylor, martin assig, agnes martin, the ink drawings and graphics by agathe böttcher, paper works by raimund von luckwald, graphics by kiki smith and william kentridge… i can’t think of more today; as an artistic director of an institution, i would be overwhelmed anyway ;-D

thank you very much. it was an honor.

iir, may 2024