Interviews |February 1, 2023

"Düsseldorf has developed incredibly"

Interview with curator Ralph Goertz

Since 2009, Ralph Goertz has headed the IKS - Institute for Art Documentation, which is considered the largest media archive for the visual arts in Europe.

His CV makes breathless reading. Ralph Goertz trained as a cameraman and men's tailor, studied theater, film and television studies in Bochum and was director of the Kammeroper NRW for six years. He has also made 93 documentaries about artists. World-famous artists such as Candida Höfer, John Baldessari and Tony Cragg have opened their doors to him. Since 2008, Goertz has been a guest curator of exhibitions focusing on British, German and American photography from the 1960s onwards. He also teaches as a guest lecturer at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf. In 2022, the IKS was expanded as a non-profit organization, which Goertz heads, to include its own photography department, which produces and curates travelling exhibitions. The aim is to promote the medium of photography and intercultural exchange. We met Ralph Goertz in his office at the NRW-Forum.

Ralph, your office as head of the IKS, the Institute for Art Documentation, is located in the NRW-Forum. What does it mean to you to work in this place?

For me, the invitation to stay at the NRW-Forum, extended by the former directors Werner Lippert and Petra Wenzel, was of great significance and incredibly important. The NRW-Forum has always been very close to the pulse of the times, as it is the showcase for contemporary art in dialog with design and photography. For the IKS as an institution, the opportunity arose to be seen in the context of art, for which I am still very grateful. On the one hand, it gave me the opportunity to film the artists who were here with their exhibition projects. And later, the opportunity to curate photo art exhibitions.

You curate exhibitions of British, German and American photographers. How did you come into contact with photography?

I first studied theater, film and television studies in Bochum and worked as a cameraman for ZDF, 3sat and arte during my studies. I actually came to photography through Thomas Ruff. As an inexperienced student, I initially found his portraits so unbelievably bad that my curiosity was aroused. There had to be more to it than that! I came to concept photography as a result of this exploration. Later on, I was socialized by the Düsseldorf photographers who worked around the art academy. My current work as a documentary filmmaker allows me to combine my two passions: photography and my interest in people.

What does the Düsseldorf photographic tradition mean to you? Is there something like a New Düsseldorf School of Photography for you? Who do you particularly appreciate?

The photographic art scene in Düsseldorf is incredibly rich, richer than in any other city in Germany, I would boldly say. This is not least due to the art academy. Bernd and Hilla Becher, Thomas Ruff, Candida Höfer - they all had a professorship here. Andreas Gursky as well. He taught fine art at the academy for eight years and an incredibly strong new generation emerged from his class. A generation that completely rethinks the medium of photography, and that's exactly what Gursky was aiming for. He wanted his art class to bring together people and characters rather than specific photographic positions, and he succeeded extraordinarily well. I would like to mention three female photographers as representatives of around a dozen outstanding talents who studied under him: Louisa Clement, Berit Schneidereit and Morgaine Schäfer. It's fun to see how this generation is reformulating itself - detached from the Becher legacy. Düsseldorf has the talent to set the right impulses, especially with regard to the medium of photography.

And apart from photographic art? What does Düsseldorf mean to you as a city?

I have been working in Düsseldorf since 1990 and have held various positions since then. In my eyes, the city has developed tremendously. It's not just the Rhine embankment road, which was moved into a tunnel, that has made a big difference. Entire districts such as Bilk and Oberbilk, as well as the gallery districts, have changed for the better. I think the cliché that Düsseldorf is purely a fashion metropolis has outlived its usefulness. The city's profile has become much more diverse and there is much more art in public spaces. Düsseldorf has what you appreciate about other world cities, long promenades like the Kö and the Rhine promenade, there is world-class architecture, an off-scene, every district has a lively pub culture - there is something for every taste. Düsseldorf has truly become a city worth living and loving.

What projects are you currently working on?

Those related to IKS Photo, the photo department of the IKS founded in 2022. The focus of the collection is on the European photographic art scene. I want to put together large exhibitions that revolve around sociologically relevant themes and tour throughout Europe. In my eyes, photography and film are the most powerful media of our time. The images speak a universal language that is understood across borders. "Facing Britain" was the first exhibition that IKS Photo produced - and the first survey exhibition on the development of British documentary photography since the 1960s. Even in Great Britain, there had never been such an intensive examination of this subject. I have now been a guest in five museums and the collection has grown from 200 works to 530. The next exhibition is an all-female show: I'm showing 25 female photographers from the UK. It will soon be on show in North Rhine-Westphalia. But I can't reveal where yet.

What do you think about the plans for a Federal Institute of Photography, which is to be built directly opposite the IKS in the Ehrenhof?

For Düsseldorf, the Deutsches Fotoinstitut is a great opportunity to showcase both German photography and its own artists. If the focus is on the acquisition of estates, it would be great if the important positions were not only collected there, but also shown.

What do you personally see as the biggest challenge in the near future?

The difficulty in curating exhibitions lies in serving the local audience on the one hand and looking further afield on the other. Both lead to new impulses - and this applies to every location. The most important work for me as a curator is to think about art and photography. Can the works on display underpin the themes of the time? At the moment, these are questions about identity, community, gender, but also fears and ideas about the future. There is a great desire for innovation and many people who are driving this desire forward, including in art. As a curator, I have to deal with that.