Proxy—Der Bürger als Pflanze
May 23–August 23, 2026
Düsseldorf 40213
Germany
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm
Maximiliane Baumgartner: Proxy – Der Bürger als Pflanze
May 23–August 23, 2026
Artistic commentary in public space
June 20–August 23, 2026
Nordpark Entrance, Kaiserswerther Straße / Edith-Stein-Weg, 40474 Düsseldorf
Maximiliane Baumgartner’s solo exhibition Proxy – Der Bürger als Pflanze comprises three interconnected chapters. The starting point for the show is the artist’s longstanding interest in spatial contexts and their social, political, and historical implications in light of structural continuities from the Nazi era. By focusing on specific examples, Baumgartner examines how Nazi structures are dealt with, revealing the extent to which urban planning and architecture continue to carry ideological and propagandistic remnants long after 1945, whilst practices of resistance were given little or no space.
The exhibition’s first chapter presents works stemming from Baumgartner’s engagement with the historic “Hof-Atelier Elvira” in Munich. The second chapter comprises works relating to the painter Dore Meyer-Vax, who was active in the city of Nuremberg during the postwar period. Produced in 2021 and 2024, both series of works foreground queer-feminist practices that resisted the propagandistic spatial and image politics of the Nazi era, and aimed at occupying public space. The third chapter focuses on Düsseldorf’s Nordpark, created in 1937 in the course of the “Große Reichsausstellung Schaffendes Volk” propaganda exhibition. The construction of the park was preceded by the violent eviction of the Heinefeld settlement, as a result of which many of the settlement’s residents, particularly Roma and Sinti, were deported and murdered. To this day, however, the park provides visitors with little critical commentary or broader contextualization regarding its history. Baumgartner’s newly produced works particularly focus on the city’s attempts at “democratizing” the Nordpark after 1945, questioning how this public space and its history were dealt with and how they are treated today.
The exhibition title, Proxy, is an English term referring to someone or something that acts on behalf of others or mediates between two parties, thus raising questions of agency, responsibility, and representation. Plants positioned throughout the exhibition space act as stand-ins for the public, reflecting on active and passive forms of seeing. How do spaces designed for ideological purposes, as “spaces of experience,” affect how we see? And how do plants shape how we apprehend these “right-wing spaces”? The relationship between people and plants is underlined by the exhibition’s subtitle, Der Bürger als Pflanze (The citizen as plant). “Der Bürger” (literally: a single male citizen) here refers to the extremely authoritarian and patriarchal structures of National Socialism and their continuing influence, while also standing for citizens as a whole. Then as now, people and plants played an equal role in reproducing the narrative of “innocence” and establishing the Nordpark as a recreational space rather than a critical site of memory and learning.
The exhibition is supported by the Karin und Uwe Hollweg Stiftung, the Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, the Kunst- und Kulturstiftung der Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, and Galerie Max Mayer, Berlin.
Maximiliane Baumgartner was invited by Kathrin Bentele.
The exhibition is curated by Clara Maria Blasius.
Events
Sunday, June 7, 2026, 4pm: Lecture-discussion with artist Maximiliane Baumgartner, the former class of Baumgartner at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and art historian Wolfgang Brauneis; at the Kunstverein Düsseldorf
Sunday, June 21, 2026, 4pm: Exhibition tour with artist Maximiliane Baumgartner and Clara Maria Blasius, curator of the exhibition; at the Kunstverein Düsseldorf
Thursday, July 23, 2026, 7pm: Guided tour by historian Jona Winstroth and artist Maximiliane Baumgartner; meeting point at the Nordpark Entrance, Kaiserswerther Straße / Edith-Stein-Weg, 40474 Düsseldorf
Reruns
From June 2026
Reruns is a new series of events that invites artists and cultural practitioners to engage with the work of others and present their own responses to it. Through situated formats such as informal talks, readings, commented screenings, and other contributions, the series explores different ways of addressing and revisiting artistic practices. In doing so, it opens up more direct and at times deeply personal forms of engagement, guided by affinity, admiration, curiosity, and subjective interpretations of a given work. To inaugurate the series, the Copenhagen-based roving cinema Terrassen presents a screening of short films by the late American poet and author Fanny Howe. The evening offers a rare glimpse into a lesser-known part of Howe’s practice, which extends and sharpens the same poetic, political, and philosophical sensibility that runs through her writing, all the while paying little attention to the boundaries of genre.
Terrassen presents Fanny Howe
Tuesday, June 9, 2026, 7pm: Screening; foyer of the Kunstverein Düsseldorf
Reruns is curated by Gloria Hasnay, director of the Kunstverein, in collaboration with Louisa Wombacher, assistant curator. The series is supported by The Gingko Foundation.
The Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf is supported by the Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf and de Haen-Carstanjen & Söhne. Stadtwerke Düsseldorf is permanent partner of the Kunstverein.
