1986 – 2026
The premiere of a video documentary by and about the artist Reinhold Gottwald.
Saturday, March 14, 2026
from 7:00 PM
Video duration: 30 min / Introductory remarks at 8 p.m. / Start: 8:30 p.m. (on time) / Doors open at 7 p.m.
A documentary about artistic independence, spatial perception and lived contemporary history.
For four decades, artist Reinhold Gottwald has been navigating a field of tension that he himself created: between artistic practice, curatorial work and an unwavering commitment to independent art venues. As early as the 1990s, he made a conscious decision to reject the established paths of the art world in favour of venues where art and society meet directly: self-managed spaces, experimental platforms, open structures. He was active where new things were emerging, where – in the truest sense of the word – boundaries were being pushed, and where art was not represented but lived. This attitude continues to shape his work to this day. His extensive involvement as a project space operator, curator and artistic director, which encompasses well over 200 exhibition projects, is only touched upon in this documentation. A wealth of other sources already exist on this subject.The focus of the approximately 30-minute video is on his own artistic work. For the first time, the documentary presents spatial and video installations, drawings, graphics, performance and their significance in a coherent context. Reinhold Gottwald’s artistic language is characterised by his exploration of space. His spatial and video installations open up situations in which viewers can reposition themselves. Space appears not only as an architectural or physical phenomenon, but as a metaphor for the relationship of the individual to the whole. Everything is an invitation to active perception.
The documentation is also a historical record, marked by the upheavals and disruptions of recent decades: Chernobyl, reunification, the coronavirus pandemic, the war in Ukraine and much more.
An era has now come to an end.
Forty years of free art represent four decades of artistic work that cannot be appropriated. Reinhold Gottwald’s oeuvre is impressive proof that artistic integrity is a contemporary necessity.
Reinhold Gottwald lives and works in Berlin-Neukölln. He completed his studies at the University of Fine Arts in Hamburg. Central aspects of his practice are the investigation of spatial perception and the integration of digital image media into architectural situations. His works have been presented in numerous exhibitions and are often site-specific.
While many know him primarily as a project space operator and exhibition organiser, it is worth taking a look at his artistic work – a body of work that has consistently been created outside the mainstream and is therefore remarkably independent.