Exhibition from May 27 to September 1, 2024 (first floor)
Vernissage on May 26, 2024, 6:00 pm

Works by Wolfgang Adam, Stefanie Aselmann, Ji-Hyun Bae, Valerij Baratheli, Carlota Carbonell Valero, Andrzej Cisowski, Birgit Decressin, Joanna Danovska, Antje Dorn, Franz Engler, Andrzej Gora, Michael Goldstraß, Sylwia Graya, Cosima Hawemann, Gudrun Hermen, Christian Heilig, Andrea C. Hoffer, J.B. Huh, Ewa Jaczynska, Andreas Junge, Taka Kagitomi, Christian Korda, Bettina Kohrs, Gesine Kikol, Chidi Kwubiri, Marta Klonowska, Mi-Ryeon Kim, Robert Klümpen, Lubomir Typlt, Alexandre Magno, Benjamin Nachtwey, Stefan Noss, Thomas Nowak, Wolfgang Pilz, Christiane Rasch, Michael Recht, Katrin Roeber, Christine Reifenberger, Römer + Römer, Claudia Schauerte, Catherine Shamugia, Nikita Schmitz, Marina Sailer, Ekatherina Savtchenko, Carrie Stubbs, Anna Tatarczyk, Susanne S.D. Themlitz, Toshiaki Suenaga, Valeriano, Anna Vilents, Grzegorz Waliczek, Yunong Wang, Xin Zhou und A.R. Penck

Curated by Britta Adler

The exhibition on the upper floor of Schloss Biesdorf shows works by A.R. Penck and almost 100 works of various art genres by 53 of his former students who studied with him at the Düsseldorf Art Academy between 1989 and 2005. The exhibition title "Inhibitions are the wrong form of resistance" is a well-known quote by A.R. Penck (1939-2017). He himself was a master of resistance – against the GDR system, against the superficiality of the art market and against any kind of conformity. In the GDR, A.R. Penck's art was considered subversive and his work was censored. Despite surveillance and reprisals by the State Security, Penck (whose real name was Ralf Winkler) managed to take his work beyond the borders of the GDR through secret exhibitions and with the support of Western artists and gallery owners.
After he was expatriated from the GDR, he taught – like his colleagues Joseph Beuys, Jörg Immendorf and Martin Kippenberger – as a professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he passed on his vision of uninhibited artistic creation to his students from 1989 to 2005. 

The title of the exhibition is reflected in many of the works on display, for example in Michael Recht's (1964-2023) androgynous "Lady with Fork", in Lubomir Typlt's pictures of crying babies, in Römer + Römer's depiction of the protests in Hambach Forest, the feminist empowerment of the works by Ekatherina Savtchenko, Joanna Danovska and Catherine Shamugia, or in Marina Sailer's sculpture on the resilience of nature, the crumpling of physical resistance in Christine Reifenberger's installation, Andrea Hoffer's silent elemental force of trees, Bettina Kohr's expression of (non-binary) identity, through to Chidi Kwubiri's powerful examination of the "Black Lives Matter" movement.

Unlike other art classes, the style of the works now on display cannot be clearly traced back to Penck, but the unmistakable influence of his way of thinking is clearly noticeable. Penck encouraged his students to overcome any resistance, to find their own expression and to devote themselves uninhibitedly to art.