Gregor Schneider: Welcome

On invitation from the Kunstmuseen Krefeld, the internationally renowned artist Gregor Schneider has carried out a new, site-specific project especially for Haus Esters. His new work Haus Alhmam Aldaas revolves around the villa built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in the 1920s as an example of modern architecture that was to serve as both a residential and a museum exhibition space. For his work, Schneider temporarily turned the museum into the home of a family from Syria. As such it once again fulfilled its original function as a private living space. The exhibition Welcome mirrors that transformation with all its particularities while at the same time pointing to a much-discussed humanitarian context: flight and migration in Europe.

Gregor Schneider invited a Syrian family to live in the museum for a certain period of time. The man had fled the war in 2015; his wife later followed him. Their two children were born in Germany. The family adapted the space and furnished the ground floor of Haus Esters in keeping with their needs and tastes. The rooms and garden were filled with life, with the children’s voices, the smell of food, and the inhabitants’ daily activities. As a museum, Haus Esters was not open to the public in this period. After a time, the family moved out again, taking the furniture, objects, and voices with them. What remains are wallpaper, curtains, small traces—and a void that raises questions: Where is the family now? What happens to a house that will no longer be lived in but once again museified? The exhibition Welcome is not just an invitation but also a multifaceted commentary on realities we often ignore. What happens to a museum like Haus Esters when it is inhabited by people from a different cultural background? What aesthetic influence do the new inhabitants have on the rooms? And vice versa: How do the existing rooms shape their lives? In Welcome, Gregor Schneider investigates the close interconnectedness of art and everyday reality—and its consequences. The house as a home and shelter is as much under scrutiny as the museum in its role as public space. The palpable emptiness of the rooms—the absence—creates a new openness, a fragile, uncertain situation that defies simple interpretation.

“The Kunstmuseen Krefeld are conceived as a place of dialogue—not only about art, but also about the world in which art comes to be. Gregor Schneider’s work in Haus Esters is a striking example of the connection between art, architecture, and social reality in which this special, historical place intertwines with issues of the present,” comments museum director Katia Baudin.

Curator Sylvia Martin stresses: “Schneider thus translates an aspect of his direct living environment into the artistic and museological context—and confronts the museum with a reality that unfolds outside its usual boundaries.”

From May 23, photographic works by Gregor Schneider, which were created as part of the project Welcome, will be on display at the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum. The presentation of a film work currently being developed by the artist, is planned for the summer at the KWM.

Gregor Schneider has created a special multiple: 300 signed and numbered, limited edition posters priced at 40 Euros (incl. VAT). An artist's book will be published to accompany the exhibition.

Director: Katia Baudin / Curator: Sylvia Martin / Press contact: Fabienne Kylla, fabienne.kylla@krefeld.de.