Julia Stoschek Foundation

The Julia Stoschek Collection brings together a collection of world renown. Here we show you six special works.

The Julia Stoschek Collection is a unique institution. Founded by the collector Julia Stoschek, the museum in Oberkassel brings together one of the world's most important collections of media art. The JSC is always open on Sundays and admission is free. The exhibitions, which focus on a theme or individual artists, change twice a year. In preparation for your visit, we have selected six video works from the JSC Video Lounge that you can watch from the comfort of your sofa at home before you head to Oberkassel every Sunday. Simply click on the images to be taken to the video.

"Social sculpture" by Lutz Mommartz

A Düsseldorf video to get you started: In "Social Sculpture" by Lutz Mommartz from 1969, Joseph Beuys looks directly at you for a full 11 minutes. The video's instructions seem almost ironic: "1967. Joseph Beuys takes on the task of behaving towards the anonymous viewer." Because you can't escape the artist's gaze, he doesn't seem anonymous at all. On the contrary, you can make out his watery eyes. Again and again he swallows, as if he is trying to suppress a cry, or takes a deep breath. As always, Beuys is dressed in his uniform: Stetson, white shirt and fisherman's vest. His enraptured aura is reinforced by the lack of sound in the video. At the same time, "Soziale Plastik" gets by with just one almost imperceptible cut in the middle of the film - back then, the film reels still had to be changed. Self-taught Lutz Mommartz, who worked as an administrative employee for the city of Düsseldorf until 1975, is now regarded as a visionary in the art of film. From 1978 to 1999, he was a professor of film at the Kunstakademie Münster.

"La vele di Scampia" by Tobias Zielony

The viewer approaches the monumental residential complex from the 1960s "Le Vele di Scampia" in Tobias Zielony's work of the same name. The film was assembled from 7000 individual images taken with a digital SLR camera. Planned as a modern antithesis to the run-down old town of Neapeal, "Le Vele" developed into a social problem zone. The Camorra used the district as a base for their criminal activities. In 2008, the building complex became famous as the backdrop for Matteo Garrone's feature film "Gomorra", named after the novel of the same name by Roberto Saviano. Together, the audience follows Tobias Zielony from the outside of the "Vele" into the interior of the labyrinthine building. There, Zielony observes young people, the main subjects of his artistic work. Although they flaunt themselves in macho poses in front of the camera, Zielony always incorporates them into his artistic work with respect and the necessary seriousness.

"I was / I am" by Barbara Hammer

Barbara Hammer, who died in 2019, was a pioneer of queer and lesbian film. The 16mm film "I Was / I am" from 1973 is a tribute to the American experimental filmmaker Maya Deren, who had a strong influence on Hammer's early work. In this biographically influenced film, the artist herself is transformed from an innocent princess in a white dress with a tiara into a lesbian fighter in a black leather outfit with a gun, riding a motorcycle. In the 1970s, Hammer was one of the first filmmakers to address the realities of lesbian life and became a pioneer of queer cinema. Her other works in the JSC media library are also definitely worth seeing!

"Peas" by Wolfgang Tillmanns

The artist Wolfgang Tillmanns is a real world star. He was the first non-Brit to receive the famous Turner Prize from the Tate Gallery in 2000 - an accolade in the art world. His work "Peas" from 2003 shows an almost three-minute study of foaming, boiling peas as a full-screen shot. The surging water creates an optical illusion: it seems as if the camera is constantly zooming away from the pot, although it always remains static. The optical illusion is in the foreground here. As the waves of boiling water slowly subside, the voice of an American TV preacher becomes increasingly dominant. "You are never in danger!" he chants. On the one hand, the openly homosexual and HIV-positive Tillmann is pointing the finger at religious narrow-mindedness and intolerance. On the other hand, the voice is reminiscent of "Preacher House", a subgenre of house music, whose culture the Remscheid native explores artistically and chronologically. 

"Zezziminnegesang" by John Bock

The next film takes us into the abstruse and very unique world of artist John Bock. "Zezziminnegesang" is a 27-minute journey through Bock's cosmos, which alternates between smiles, amazement and disgust. In an untidy kitchen, you watch him, for example, brutally opening a tin of ravioli with a hammer and chisel. With great effort, he scoops out the contents of the tin with a spoon tied to an armchair. A corpse, the pop song "Grau zieht der Nebel" by Alexandra and a dialog between Kim Basinger and Günter Grass also play a role. Sounds weird, maybe even a little creepy? It is! But absolutely worth seeing. And a little spoiler: At the end of this great grotesque, the inner demons are banished with a very Hollywood ending. 

"At the house of Mr. X" by Elizabeth Price

Finally, there is an almost hypnotic film by Elizabeth Price. "At the house of Mr. X" (2007) shows a modernist house built in the late 1960s in a wealthy suburb of London. It was commissioned by the cosmetics manufacturer and art collector Stanley Picker as a residence, but he only lived in it for a short time. The video is a slow tour of the building: entrance, reception area, dining room and drawing room and later the bedroom. The works of art displayed throughout the house provide us with the only visual references to human figures. The tour of this architectural gem is accompanied by superimposed lines of text. The information comes from various archives in the house, including architectural explanations, curatorial inventories of the artworks and design objects as well as a collection of business papers with advertisements for the well-known cosmetics brands "Mary Quant", "Miners" and "Outdoor Girl".

This article is funded by REACT-EU.

Pictures: Julia Stoschek Foundation