The painting allocated to Thomas Behling, shown before and after the artistic enhancement, now entitled “In a moment without any reflection, finally and for ever.” (78 x 78 cm)
"Von der Platte in den Palast" – ‘From a prefab block to a palace’
‘Kunstverbesserung’ will be making two guest appearances at the Kulturpalast on 18 September and 9 October 2026, with the exhibitions ‘abgestellt und verbessert’ – parts one and two. On display will be the first Potsdam ‘Kunstverbesserung’, followed by the revamped second ‘Kunstverbesserung’, which will take a special detour via Würselen.
For 1,000 days, Koselleck collected art from the side of the road and from bulky waste, or plucked stretcher frames from the bushes, and used these to curate the exhibition “abgestellt”. Only canvases stretched over stretcher frames were considered art by the activist, who had made Berlin his home. During the first opening at the KOSMOS Gallery in Potsdam in March this year, Ruppe raffled off the works from the curated show ‘abgestellt’ amongst a selection of art students from the University of Potsdam and invited professional artists, who had 14 days to improve the art and the world and to present the old, renewed as ‘improved’, in the show.
180 days and nights later, the KUNSTVERBESSERUNG team is presenting a new collection of discarded street art at the KULTURPALAST DER REPUBLIK in Würselen, giving a new selection of artists the chance to make the good and the bad even better on stretched sackcloth and linen within 21 days!
In collaboration with the Society for Art and Contemporary Culture, the participating artists are exhibiting Part 1 of ‘Art Improvement’ from Potsdam and, in Part 2 – the ‘Würselen Loop’ – are developing new works of art from old, discarded objects of high and low culture.
From the list of students and artists who have taken part so far in the exhibition at the RECHENZENTRUM in Potsdam, the following are listed here provisionally and almost in full. Seeing them alone makes the long journey to Würselen well worth it!
Sena Nisa Aydinli * Thomas Behling * Marlene Behnert * Judith Beyer * Susanne von Bülow * Luna Dowiedeit * Frederik Foert * Karla Fritsche * Eva Früh * Ilka Habrich * Jolina Hartmann * Teresa Heinemann * Dirk Martin Heinzelmann * Stephan Homann * Julia Hoppen * Paul Juricke * Ruppe Koselleck * Kimia * Katarina Kremnetz * Antonia Low * Petra Lüning * Adrian Maier * Candia Neumann * Olivia Seiling * Julieta Palombi * Thomas Prautsch * Rebecca Sert * Anton Ruhl * Oliver Schmidt * Florian Schulz * Lena Skaya * Myrijam Stoetzer * Annabella Wegmann Florez * Sarah Wewer
At the Kulturpalast of the ‘Society for Contemporary Art and Contemporary Culture’, alongside the ‘Potsdam Improvements’, new works – formerly homeless and left out in the open – will be on display on Friday 18 September 2026 from 7 pm. Over the course of 21 days, they will become more beautiful, different or completely different!
Because if we cannot improve the world, then at least we can improve art!
With this, Koselleck is taking a small step in the right direction: for a long time, artists believed they had to be part of a self-appointed mission to improve the world and, in doing so, fleeced society – mentally through incomprehensibility and disorienting ambiguity, but also physically, as every honest worker is forced to carry an artist on their shoulders. The consequences of decades of misguided development weigh heavily: where once law-abiding taxpayers went about their work in factories, there are now art studios.
Even if Koselleck’s project is, for the time being, merely a step in the right direction – after all, he has not yet freed himself from the impetus to improve – he will certainly be followed by more resolute artists who are capable of no longer reflecting on anything – this, at least, is the aspect that Thomas Behling endeavours to realise in his work *In a moment without any reflection, finally and for ever.* : art should evoke strong emotions, the intense experience of which should not be disrupted by ideologies such as ethics, responsibility or causal-logical thinking. Should one manage to survive the whole thing, one can at least say afterwards that one knew nothing of it – which is indeed true, for one has made a great effort to ensure it.
From the material value to the aura of the artwork, a subjective chasm had opened up in all the pictures on display, one that had come to an end at the roadside. To reconsider and rethink this external decision, whilst revising, improving and re-presenting the work, is intended as a free, playful act of engaging with values, perspectives and opinions, as well as a new form of art, which we then intend to celebrate together on Friday 9 October 2026 at 7 pm with the ‘improved’ exhibition at the same venue.
On 10 October 2026, from 11 am – the morning after – we’ll be hosting a hangover breakfast and inviting you to take a second and third look at the improved works and worlds.
Artists taking part in the ‘Würselener Schleife’:
Sena Nisa Aydinli, Wiebke Bartsch, Rainer Barzen, Christiane Behr, Agnes Bläsen, Beate Freier- Bongaertz, Josephine Bonnet, Axel Brandt, Cara Cleary, Anne Fiedler, Helly Fuchs, Zandra Harms, Vera Hilger, Eva Maria Kollischan, Sabine Lenz, Gerda Lipski, Petra Lüning, Jo Magrean, Susanne Mix, Evelyn Möcking, Martina Muck, Daniel Nehring, Gertrud Neuhaus, Osvaldo Puente, Birgit Reinken, Bella Rasch, Alfred Reuters, Ingrid Roscheck, Thomas Schiela, Christiane Schoenen, Julia Schoenen, Michel Scheu, Dietmar Schmale, Dirk Schulte, Vera Sous, Myrijam Stoetzer, Alfons Thesing, Dirk Vollenbroich, Ivo Weber
Part 1: 18 September, 7.00 pm
Part 2: 9 October, 7.00 pm & 10 October, 11.00 am
Free admission
KULTURPALAST DER REPUBLIK
Morlaixplatz 12-14
52146 Würselen
Germany