ArToll

Through lattice windows the April sun shines, low enough to reach deeply into the large chamber, strong enough to cast saturated shadows. Against this ever changing presence of rays and darkness as background, stand out an object by Korean art student Hyun-joo Son. A slanted spade is supported by a red rod, a yellow rod on the floor completes the form of a triangle. The two coloured rods are immaculate, the spade is soiled, just taken from a shed. The straight cutting part of the blade provides...

A highlight each year for ArToll is the visit of a class of the Versailles School of Fine Art (École des Beaux Arts). Motivated students and dedicated teachers bring sparkling cultural life to the community of Bedburg-Hau and give, at the end of their stay, a good insight in the quality of teaching and learning. Language can be a problem, as French is rarely taught in Germany nowadays, but visitors to the exhibitions assist each other and the artists in understanding the displayed art. A...

For the last five years the art initiative „ArToll“ in Bedburg-Hau hosts once a year a group of art students and their teachers from the École des Beaux Arts (EBA) in Versailles. With limited facilities available, they have to work with the materials they bring along or collect artefacts around the building or during exploration travels. In this year Arielle Benzekri gave the visitors of the exhibition a fine example of a performance with pieces she picked up from her voyage by bus to the...

Suspended from the high ceiling we see long white silk fibres hung over a ring, forming a closed round curtain. Another round structure, consisting of a thick layer of unprocessed dark sheep wool, lies under it, slightly displaced. The large 50 square meter room, with its 4 meter ceiling, contains only these two objects. “L'ombre”, (shadow) is the name of the group. As the dark circle is not directly placed under the silk structure it is possible to enter the enclosure without disturbing the...

On the way to the exhibition by visiting art students of the Ecole des Beaux Arts I saw lots of applied art on the streets of the inviting German community. It's election time and visual artists and writers show their creativity on billboards, advertising candidates. After such an encounter, it was refreshing to meet real artists and see the result of a one week workshop at ArToll's. The exhibition's title was: “Au pays de Herr Joseph Beuys. Contexte(s)”. ArToll is situated on the compounds of...

Die Idee einer Hochschule für Kunst am unteren Niederrhein ist nicht neu, doch man hört nicht mehr viel davon. Von der Öffentlichkeit kaum wahrgenommen wurde eine solche Schule in Bedburg-Hau vor kurze Zeit ins Leben gerufen. Wie im vergangenen Jahr kamen Studenten und Lehrer der Schule der Schönen Künste aus Versailles bei Paris und arbeiteten eine Woche im ArToll-Gebäude auf dem Gelände der Rheinischen Kliniken. Keine Kunst die man im Gepäck hat und die man einfach aufhängt oder hinstellt,...