Exhibition

21. May – 26. Jul 2026

DIE STÜTZEN (~THE SUPPORTS)

Place: robotron-Kantine, Lignerallee am Skatepark

Die Stützen (~ The Supports) (Combine Drawings) is a drawn intervention into the iconic architecture of the robotron cafeteria, created as part of the exhibition Productive Unrest. It consists of a series of drawn columns that reinforce the roof of the robotron cafeteria at various critical points.

Die Stützen (~ The Supports) is a drawing-based intervention located at various points on the exterior of the building as well as in Hall A and Hall B. The intervention on the building was created as a collective drawing project (Combine Drawing), consisting of individual drawings stacked on top of one another by a total of 31 artists. The artist Olav Westphalen invited an open network at the Academy of Fine Arts, as well as artist friends and non-artists, to submit drawings in formats of their choice (but at least A4 size) that interpret one or more of the motifs he specified: a fist, a loaf of bread, a potato, or a head. The drawings were to be in black and white (or gray) and each show an isolated object against a blank background.
These motifs, which have already been depicted in a multitude of works throughout art history and in a certain sense belong to the classical canon, are timeless motifs that were also frequently encountered in art exhibitions in the GDR. Stacked on top of one another, they are hung like columns or buttresses that help support the roof of the building, which is in dire need of renovation.

The pillars were created jointly by Olav Westphalen and Bárbara Castaño Aksyonova, Elif Aktas, Caroline Appelbaum, Fabienne Caprice Arenz, Amadea Blaut, Mila Franziska Böhm, Justyna Chołdzyńska, Paul Decker, Catalina Etzrodt, Kasia Fudakowski, Anisha Gattnar, Luca Griese, Josefine Marie Goebels, Luisa Goethe, Yua Heo, Manuel Kirsch, Matthias Lempart, Linus Lenkeit, Virginia Lorenzetti, Anne Neukamp, Marit Neeb, Hyeonjin Park, Ignas Puikis, Sascia Reibel, Xavier Robles de Medina, Sigrid Sandström, Lennart Schunk, Maxwell Stephens, and Vasilis Vitolianos.