'Courtroom' by Maximiliane Baumgartner and Alex Wissel at Studio for Artistic Research, Dusseldorf

Maximiliane Baumgartner and Alex Wissel’s painting series courtroom consists of a growing number of paintings, newly composed for each exhibition.

The paintings are based on their observations published in the art publication courtroom. Courtroom is showing in the form of drawings and textual contributions observations of the ongoing NSU trial in Munich and the contextualization of its nationwide significance. 

The NSU trial has taken place in the Munich appellate court since 2013. Over the course of many hundreds of days, the trial has been an attempt to shed light on the nationwide, serial murders committed by the so-called Nationalsozialistichen Untergrunds (NSU) [National Socialist Underground].

At irregular intervals since 2016, Maximiliane Baumgartner and Alex Wissel have attended the trial at Munich’s appellate court. In so doing, they have artistically appropriated the trial as a sphere of action, in which they have invited other authors to collaboratively reflect on its forms of staging, levels of meaning, and possible consequences. Parts of the installation display were previously incorporated into an original arrangement on the facade of the mobile, artistic architectural and action space “DER FAHRENDE RAUM” in Munich for two months.

The first two editions of the art publication courtroom are released on the occasion of the exhibition at the Studio for Artistic Research. Accompanying the publication release, authors Madeleine Bernstorff (film curator and author, Berlin) and Timo Feldhaus (art critic and author, Berlin) have been invited to curate individual evening programs.