in group exhibitions featuring multiple artists, one can distinguish between affinities that reaffirm the expected and constellations that, thanks to new encounters, reveal the familiar in a different light. the exhibition featuring works by anton stankowski and abisag tüllmann belongs to the second group. it surprises. it opens up new perspectives. it sheds light. yet at first glance, their works seem to have nothing to do with one another. on the one hand, there is the prominent photographer, the subtle chronicler of the postwar years, who not only documented the ’68 movement but also drew from it a political foundation that emphatically shaped her work. on the other hand, there is anton stankowski, the famous exponent of concrete and constructive art and design, who programmatically severs any mimetic connection to reality in his graphic and painterly works. his photographs from the 1920s and 1930s also oscillate between new objectivity’s materiality and formal abstraction. theodor w. adorno, who was portrayed on multiple occasions by abisag tüllmann, would likely have dismissively referred to many of her works as “wallpaper patterns.”

on the one hand, then, there are the living people, the bustling life, the warm-hearted gestures. on the other, the transformation of movements into forms, the fascination with the desolate world of objects, the visual play with series. tüllmann and stankowski seem not only to have different temperaments, but also to perceive reality through entirely different eyes.

what, then, is the magic key that unlocks anew what is supposedly always the same—and the established ways in which we, too, view and categorize their works? it is a kind of reciprocal blending that arises from shared spaces of experience, which both artists depict in their work. in this exhibition, this is the radically everyday: the way we deal with familiar and ordinary things, the routines that govern everyday actions, the seriality and standardization of the objects we encounter, and, not least, the recurrence of certain forms of objects, products, utensils, and furnishings that become ways of life.

in the case of abisag tüllmann, these include, for example, a photograph from the series “wischen und waschen” (wiping and washing), which appeared in kursbuch in 1980; snapshots from the “hasch-in” in 1969 at the bockenheimer anlage; and the “heiße brühe” (hot broth) (1992) at the warmer otto warming center of the heilandsgemeinde in moabit. the subjects, as well as the way they are depicted, make a political stance vivid and almost tangible. on the back of a photograph of a young person carefully rolling a joint, one can read: “fascination, devotion—if even for such small things, how much more so for the big ones.” that is abisag tüllmann’s program in a nutshell.

with anton stankowski, on the other hand, even a demonstration or a parade in zurich becomes a tension of forms, but not of political content. his images are ostentatiously stripped of any politics or history. they show a stack of plates as a “zeitlose garnitur” (timeless set) (1935) transform aesthetics into a serial “ess-thetik” (aesthetics of eating) (1930) or turn a photograph of a dated one-franc coin into a small leporello. once again, it seems, tüllmann and stankowski have nothing to do with one another. but why is it nevertheless illuminating to exhibit them together?

two very different factors are crucial here: first, the differing approaches to everyday life highlight certain phenomena that have been pushed into the background by the respective aesthetic approach, bringing them to the fore. stankowski’s fascination with the serial, with clear and concise forms, also shapes tüllmann’s lived world. for her, too, the tiles and fixtures are objects that share a strong affinity with the new objectivity aesthetic, just as her photographs of industrial work processes are dedicated to the production of ever-identical objects. the juxtaposition of the images in the exhibition spaces reveals underlying contexts and also highlights that which one seeks to distance oneself from.

conversely, the same applies to stankowski, whose seemingly cool depiction of the world of objects and forms now becomes apparent as part of a practice, as the execution of actions, as life itself. the objects are solidified forms of everyday life’s activities. this is made clear not least by stankowski’s graphic works, which are also on display. here, a specific execution of form-giving artistic actions gives rise to the production of distinct series.

these further highlight the second illuminating aspect of this constellation: tüllmann and stankowski are each, in their own distinct ways, concerned with forms of participation and engagement that also have implications for the aesthetics of reception.

one principle of concrete art was that the aesthetic processes shaping the work should be comprehensible to viewers. they were meant to be able to understand—and even replicate—the rules according to which the image was created. in this sense, concrete art sees itself as a radically democratic aesthetic. and this is precisely what abisag tüllmann has in mind with her works: the constructive nature of postwar society’s development—when everyday life is depicted—aims at participation and involvement. this unique, precious attitude shapes her diverse body of work. viewing these works side by side means not only observing them together but also perceiving art as a means of democracy. and that is no small feat.

bernd stiegler