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Beyond the Box – the Dohmen Collection

It‘s hard to think of a more meaningful opener for this multifaceted The exhibition ‚Beyond the Box‘ with central works from the priva-
exhibition: the central space on the ground floor of the Leopold- te Dohmen collection in Aachen is a truly outstanding event. It is
Hoesch Museum‘s historicist building welcomes the visitor with notable that the majority of works are by artists of non-European
the immediacy of an expansive environment by the African artist origin – hence the exhibition‘s title, roughly translated into Ger-
Georges Adéagbo. Countless objects are arranged as if in a church man as ‚Beyond the Familiar‘. The 17 artists in total come from 13
nave, oriented towards the rood screen, all around on the floor and countries. Participants from Japan, Israel, Korea, Cuba, Mexico, New
as friezes on the walls. A kind of prayer rug lies in alignment in Zealand, Serbia, and West Africa are joined by colleagues from the
the centre. With this, one is immediately introduced to the subject USA and the European continent, including from Belgium, Bulgaria,
of multicultural communication. Found objects of various materials Romania, Russia and Sweden. Ever since documenta 11, curated in
from the artist‘s African homeland of Benin are in dialogue with re- 2002 by the late, visionary African Okwui Enwesor, we have gradu-
ferences from the European cultural space, the trivial has the same ally become accustomed to broaden our gaze and to abandon the
value as the precious, books in several languages lie side by side, exclusively European and North American perspective as a yard-
historical treatises encounter contemporary newspapers, a vinyl re- stick. That such a fundamental shift towards an intercultural, global
cord has been put up next to a wall hanging and even a greeting art appreciation, possible in the large-scale setting of a world ex-
to the collector in the shape of the sign ‚Arztpraxis‘ (doctor‘s sur- hibition, can also convince in a small, private context, is testimony
gery) shines from the wall. The ensemble is thus far from colourful to the collector‘s personal touch. He has succeeded in giving the
potpourri, but rather a mixture of individual moments and comple- exhibition a persuasive overall appearance, without losing the he-
te narrative threads, finely balanced within the temporal and local terogenous in the individual positions. For here the spectrum ran-
context, and, with its culture clash, already hinting at ideas from the ges from objets trouvés through installations and word messages
overall production. to minimalist drawings. Indeed, the clever staging leads to exciting
dialogues, for instance when Michael E. Smith‘s orange gas bottle

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