Mission of Columbus Art Foundation

Columbus Art Foundation (C-AF) is an initiative within the Columbus-Group that focuses primarily on three activities: supporting, showing and collecting. The centre of these activities consists of a nationwide unique advancement project for artists, who are about to cross the line between academy and art system. The advancement actions of C-AF have been accompanied for several years by a specific educational program for children and teenagers: die Kunstentdecker (art explorers).

supporting

Since 1996 Columbus Art Foundation strives to support young art of extraordinary high quality. The advancement is carried out over a fixed period of three years, during which C-AF sees itself as the artists’ partner. Unlike other project-oriented funding programs or scholarships CAF’s advancement award scheme offers a framework with only very few stipulated rules. The support starts with a group exhibition that includes the last ten nominees and takes place every autumn and it terminates after three years with a solo exhibition and the production of a catalogue for each of the two award recipients. In between these two exhibitions we develop unique funding concepts together with the artists and direct the way of support to the particular needs of the artists’ diverse way of working. For more than ten years of advancement activities in the Arts, Columbus received the 1. Deutschen Kulturförderpreis from the Kulturkreis im BDI in June 2006.

Supported artists (2009 – 1996)

showing

A vital part of Columbus’s dedication to contemporary art is an extensive exhibition program that until now took place in the 800 sqm in-house exhibition hall in the so-called “House for Ideas”, where the Columbus-Group moved in 2004. Until now C-AF put here several major temporary exhibitions every year.

exhibition: ›die Präsenzproduzenten‹, Summer 2007, Ravensburg
Tata Ronkholz, Tilo Schulz, Y8 (Benita & Immanuel Grosser, Katharina Grosse, Wolfgang Winter / Berthold Hörbelt

We relocated the temporary exhibitions to the Spinnerei Leipzig, Halle 14 in May 2008. Approximately every 6 months C-AF will present parts of the permanent in the exhibition hall in the “House for Ideas”. The collection is based on more than 12 years of acquisition and comprises more than 500 artworks, most of which were created by the artists who were or are part of the advancement award scheme. Becoming the central space to present the company owned art collection, the exhibition hall will have an even more lasting effect onto the work environment of the whole Columbus-Group. Apart from the not at all static presentation of the permanent collection, the exhibition hall also will open its doors for co-operations with external partners.

exhibition: ›Wollust – the presence of absence‹, Leipzig, 2008
Joachim Bandau, Platino, Manfred Pernice, Louise Lawler, Wilhelm Müller

The new exhibition formats that have been introduced in Ravensburg in 2007 stay the same in Leipzig – beginning with a major, thematic group exhibition, which is independent from the advancement activities of C-AF. This first exhibition will be followed by two concurrent solo exhibitions, which show the work of two advancement award holders. The group exhibition “+10”, which presents the 10 finalists of the current selection procedure, will complete the annual program. By the end of the exhibition this year’s highlight will take place in form of the announcement of the two advancement award recipients. The reasons for choosing the Spinnereigelände, and here particularly HALLE 14, are diverse. The most substantial argument was the proximity to one of the most interesting educational institutions in the German-speaking world, the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (HGB) in Leipzig. We expect from this vicinity a lively exchange and see the new habitat as a place of learning for us. Because of this we also conceive of the closeness to the “Universal Cube” – a project by HGB, class of Joachim Blank – on the second floor of HALLE 14 as windfall. Furthermore the explicitly non-commercial approach of HALLE 14 is perfectly in accordance with the self-conception of C-AF.

collecting

The Columbus Collection is in the making since 1995. It focuses mainly on the acquisition of artworks from the artists that are part of the advancement project. On a smaller scale, C-AF also bought works by already renowned artists. In the future the Columbus Collection will concentrate on three thematic priorities that are on the one hand open enough to maintain variety and on the other hand specific enough to link the collection even more closely to the context of Columbus-Group and the “House for Ideas”.

Anna Witt | Import Export Life Conditions | 2005-2006 | Installation, mixed media

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