13/09/2025 – 26/10/2025,

Layers in Complexity – Between Traces and Sediments

, NAK Neuer Aachener Kunstverein

While exploring the theme of layers, questions about overlaps and traces within the long-standing scholarship program Residence NRW⁺ emerged. Initially based at Schloss Ringenberg for nearly 20 years as a German-Dutch cooperation project, the program moved to Münster in 2018. In 2020/2021, the newly restructured residency program was launched there – for the first time institutionally linked to Kunsthalle Münster and with the Swiss cultural foundation Pro Helvetia as new international funding partner. In addition to some furniture from the old residency program, books in particular have moved to the new location – silent witnesses to artistic and curatorial practice, reflection, and research.

The publications sent in by former scholarship holders now form a separate layer within the curatorial concept and refer to the continuity and complexity of the program. As material and content-related traces, they document not only individual artistic developments, but also the collective history of the residency program. The selection includes publications from various disciplines – from artistic monographs to curatorial essays to experimental formats – and opens up a multifaceted archive. The books are embedded as a separate exhibition within the spatial and thematic structure of this year's scholarship exhibition. They represent the connection between production and reflection, the layers between idea, implementation, and memory. In this way, the exhibition becomes a place where past and present overlap and new perspectives on the program and its impact emerge.