Passages
14.3. – 17.5.2026
Nat Faulkner | Solomon Garçon | Keta Gavasheli | Gaylen Gerber mit Leah Ke Yi Zheng | Hervé Guibert | Nour Mobarak | Henrik Olesen | B. Ingrid Olson | Anastasia Pavlou | Matthew Peers | Cora Pongracz | Pope.L | Ariana Reines und Oscar Tuazon | Dieter Roth | Sava Sekulić
Passages is an exhibition about the mutability of matter and form. While questions of form often concern how material is endowed with, or given form, the exhibition likewise attends to the existential dimension embedded within a larger notion of form. The moment in which something takes form is often also the moment in which an existence or presence is suggested, while conversely the dissolution of form often involves disappearance, loss, or even destruction. Moments of making and unmaking form alternate in this exhibition, presenting works that resist being captured as either fully “stable form” or as formless, existing somewhere in between. They create form while simultaneously suggesting the possibility of its dissolution, as if reflecting a fundamental instability. Even if we encounter objects in this exhibition, its focus lies less on a fixed shape, but on a shift, and on the potential for transformation. Matter is considered as a site of change, encompassing both physical and psychological “matter”. At its centre are works that embody a change of state – from one material to another, from one temporality to another, from one appearance to another. Sometimes it is anarchic and disintegrating forces that bring about these transformations, while at others, it is simply the passing of time and with it a kind of withering or evanescence.
Curated by Kathrin Bentele. On loan from the Zander Collection, the work The Army of General Franchet d’Espèrey (1976) by Sava Sekulić is on display.
Kunsthalle Friart Fribourg
Petit-Rames 22
Postfach 294
1701 Fribourg
Switzerland
Charlotte Zander:
COLLECTOR, GALLERIST, MUSEUM FOUNDER
10.10.25 – 25.9.26
Photo: ZADIK E 9, Archiv Charlotte Zander, Photographer unknown
You are cordially invited to the opening at ZADIK on Friday, October 10, from 7–9 pm.
The exhibition will also be on display from November 6 to 9 at the ZADIK booth at this year’s ART COLOGNE.
Charlotte Zander (1930–2014) embarked on her career in the art world as a collector. Beginning in the mid-1960s, she assembled a collection of works by artists who had not trained at an academy or other art school—what was then known as “naïve art.” In 1971, her treasures became the foundation for her gallery Charlotte—Galerie für naive Kunst in Munich, which existed until 1995. She went on to inaugurate her private museum at Bönnigheim Palace in 1996, where she presented her collection, organized exhibitions, and pursued cooperative ventures with international cultural institutions.
The exhibition at ZADIK sheds light on the various stages of the collector, gallerist, and museum founder’s career. How did Charlotte Zander put her own stamp on the various roles that she filled in the course of her life? How did she approach the mission of creating visibility for the artists she cherished? How did she build and maintain her network of artists and other art-world actors? Which joint projects, mutually inspiring and beneficial relationships, and debates was she involved in? The exhibition also prompts critical reflections on historic and often stigmatizing concepts. And it illustrates how the Zander Collection preserves her legacy for the future.
RSVP by October 6, 2025, to lbeugel1@uni-koeln.de
ZADIK | Zentralarchiv für deutsche und internationale Kunstmarktforschung
Im Mediapark 7
50670 Cologne
Milestone Cooperation on Self-Taught and Outsider Artists’ Work in Cologne. The Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek and ZADIK Receive Major Gifts from the Zander Collection
In 1997, Charlotte Zander was the first woman to be honored with the ART COLOGNE Award for her formidable dedication to “naïve art.” Twenty-eight years later, the documentation and scholarly study of the works of self-taught and outsider artists are firmly established in Cologne, with permanent representation at three venues: last fall, the nonprofit Zander Collection inaugurated an exhibition space in Cologne where exhibitions of works from the collection are held on a regular basis. Susanne Zander now gifts the internationally unrivaled specialized library with literature on the collection’s themes to the Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek Köln (KMB), where scholars can access it effective immediately. Meanwhile, the collector, gallery owner, and museum founder Charlotte Zander’s archive has been entrusted to ZADIK, where it is being made accessible to researchers. ZADIK is preparing a thematically focused exhibition, which will open in 2025.
Nadine Oberste-Hetbleck, director of ZADIK, is delighted: “In the extensive archival material documenting Charlotte Zander’s work, ZADIK now possesses a stock of high-quality sources providing insight into her collection-building activities going back to the 1950s. Because she turned her personal passion into a profession, founding a gallery and, later, a museum, the archive also enables us to learn more about the international networks of dealers and museums handling and showcasing ‘naïve art.’”
Susanne Zander, CEO of Sammlung Zander, is confident that the gifts have opened up new avenues of access to the work of self-taught and outsider artists for specialists and the broader public alike: “One objective of our work with the Zander Collection is to facilitate and promote scholarly engagement with this art. We want to establish Cologne as a central setting of such research. The gifts, which also encompass my personal extensive library on so-called outsider art, are a vital step toward this goal. We are moreover developing new projects involving the collection that embed our exhibitions in diverse discursive and scholarly contexts.”
Elke Purpus, director of the Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek, is inviting the interested public to come and start reading: “We have already entered 2,449 publications into our online catalogue—the work is almost complete. We look forward to welcoming many visitors wishing to consult the Zander Library.”
Bringing both an archive and the related specialized library to Cologne is a model that ZADIK and the Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek have successfully implemented in a series of instances. They underscore its advantages: “It is only a short walk from one institution to the other, enabling scholars to take full advantage of the two related sets of holdings—a collaboration we intend to consolidate and expand on.”