A look at the next generation

The promotional booths at ART COLOGNE have already given wings to many young careers. The NEW POSITIONS sector has been organised by the fair and the Federal Association of German Galleries and Art Dealers since 1980. Since then, around 1,000 young artists with an average age of 35 have been promoted. The programme is a central pillar of the fair. It aims to make it easier for young artists to enter the art market and to attract the interest of collectors, museums and institutions. Here, visitors can see what drives these talented artists and the means by which they work. More than 80% of them are still working with ‘their’ gallery after three to five years.

Renowned artists such as Rosemarie Trockel, Neo Rauch, Candida Höfer, Thomas Demand and Olafur Eliasson made their first major appearances at art fairs in this context. This time, 19 newcomers will be participating. Their works will be displayed in promotional booths directly at the exhibitor's stand. Any gallery specialising in contemporary art that exhibits at ART COLOGNE can apply for a promotional booth. A jury selects the most convincing artists from the proposals. This year, the jury consists of Maurin Dietrich (director of the Munich Art Association), Maurice Funken (director of NAK – Neuer Aachener Kunstverein), Lisa Klosterkötter (artistic director of the Temporary Gallery// Centre for Contemporary Art, Cologne), Ursula Schöndeling (First Chairwoman of the ADKV, Berlin) and Dr Marc Wellmann (Artistic Director of Haus am Lützowplatz – Förderkreis Kulturzentrum Berlin). NEW POSITIONS is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM) with a project grant of €35,000.

Painting is the most strongly represented genre, flanked by spatial and interdisciplinary works. Thematically, they range from political issues to socio-economic and technological phenomena. Among the current participants is Arhun Aksakal at EBENSPERGER, Berlin. He grew up between Istanbul and Frankfurt and moves between the Orient and the Occident. His grandparents came to Germany as guest workers in the 1960s and experienced the transformation of a war-torn country into an industrial nation. Their stories shaped Aksakal's view of transitions and social tensions. Between high-tech and ruin, his videos, photographs and performances move at the interface of urban psychogeography and collective memory.

The Produzentengalerie Hamburg has Noémi Barbaglia in its portfolio. In her sculptures and installations, she explores the boundaries between the visible and the invisible. Architectural elements such as windows and corridors are deconstructed and reassembled to question the boundaries between the private and the public. Her works remind us that clear boundaries are often illusions and that insight arises from engaging with the unknown.

KROBATH in Vienna is backing Melanie Ender. She works with industrial materials such as plasterboard, copper pipes, brass rods, and steel sheets. These are processed and placed in relation to one another. The artist sees her works as temporary compositions that retain a great deal of openness in their arrangement and fragmentary character. Sarah Friend at Galerie Nagel Draxler, Cologne/Berlin, has attracted attention with her innovative and critical voices in the field of new digital art and its discourses. As a technologist and software developer, she moves at the intersections of art, finance, and blockchain technology.

The winner of the 2020 Paula Modersohn-Becker Art Prize, Cihan Cakmak, studied photography in Dortmund, Lisbon, New York, and Leipzig. She is being presented as part of NEW POSITIONS by EIGEN+ART, Berlin/Leipzig. In her work, she deals with themes such as oppression and collective memory, identity and self-empowerment. Her perspective is that of a daughter of Kurdish immigrants born in Germany, whose cultural heritage flows into her photographs. Cakmak has contributed to various publications, including Zeit Magazin, Missy Magazin and Focus. She has also published a photo book with SHIFT BOOKS. Her works have been exhibited in numerous institutions, including the Kunsthalle Erfurt, the Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin, and the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn. The Museum Morsbroich in Leverkusen is planning a solo exhibition for 2026.