Forty-four years after the opening of Museum Abteiberg, the route designed by Hans Hollein across the bridge to the museum’s main entrance on the roof will be realized. This marks the long-planned urban cut-through connecting Museum Abteiberg to the city. Throughout 2026, the site will be under construction; by the turn of the year 2026/27, it will become a new urban space that connects the museum to the city center and makes it visible within the urban fabric.
Today’s urban planners are not implementing Hans Hollein’s original idea from the 1970s—a narrow passage cut through the ground floor of a retail building—but instead are developing an open landscape of green space, plazas, and pathways on the cleared site of former retail buildings.
Museum Abteiberg will assume an active role in this urban project from 2026 to 2028. At the museum, the medial line and the entire system of terraces and stairways leading to the main entrance on the roof will undergo restoration. The museum will also carry out extensive conservation of its outdoor sculpture collection. This includes Alexander Calder’s Pointes et courbes stabile on the terrace level and the fountain by Erwin Heerich at the newly redesigned Alter Markt. New works will appear during this period, continuing Mönchengladbach’s tradition of art in public space. These projects are developed in close artistic collaboration, with participating artists announced over time. The first is by the US artist Grant Mooney, whose wind harp on the museum roof will be on view when his exhibition opens at Museum Abteiberg on March 29, 2026.
GRANT MOONEY
sum
with Laura Aguilar, Olga Balema, Joseph Beuys, Patricia L. Boyd, Wisrah C. V. da R. Celestino, Hanne Darboven, Yael Davids, Niloufar Emamifar, Flint Jamison, Christian Jendreiko, Jannis Kounellis, Grant Mooney, Robert Morris, Winona Sloane Odette, Ulrich Rückriem, Takis and others.
March 29—September 20, 2026
Opening: March 29, 12 am
The US artist Grant Mooney (b. 1990, Seattle, WA; lives and works in Brooklyn, New York) develops sculptural work that treats material not as a static given but as a relational configuration. Through techniques of fabrication, joining, and sealing—such as soldering and electroplating—Mooney transforms precious metals and industrial materials, including silver and steel, into ascetic abstract objects whose presence is defined less by form than by their relationship to space and environment. In his engagement with sculptural processes, Mooney makes visible the layered contexts and relationships of materials and forms, generating new and unexpected constellations. His works operate in the tension between autonomous, abstract, and site-specific sculpture, articulating an open, tactile, and interconnected understanding of three-dimensional work.
The exhibition sum at Museum Abteiberg examines the behavior of materials across historical and contemporary artistic positions. Taking Mooney’s sculptural approach as its point of departure, the exhibition reconsiders the architectural and conceptual specificities of the museum alongside key developments in (post-)modern sculpture and places them in dialogue with current practices. sum brings together new and existing works by Mooney, works by other contemporary artists and from the collection of Museum Abteiberg, and selected loans.
A multilayered exhibition structure emerges through a dialogue between defining categories of Minimal Art and Conceptualism—such as weight, density, and mass—and immaterial forces including biochemical processes and atmospheric change. The point of departure is a new body of work by Mooney, produced in collaboration with Chisenhale Gallery, London, which foregrounds air and its movement as sculptural substance. This group includes a harp designed by the artist that vibrates not through touch but through the elemental force of air and will be installed on the museum roof. Like this instrument, the other works allow external forces to act upon them in different ways, opening themselves to fragility and transformation. The ephemeral and the immeasurable become central points of reference, opening new perspectives on material, space, and perception.
ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE
FIELD TEST #5: SAITO – AY-O
through November 22, 2026
With Field Test #5: Saito – Ay-O, the alphabetically organized Field Test series—structured around the first letters of the artists’ last names and presenting works from the Fluxus holdings of the ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE since 2021—entered its final round on November 20, 2025.
The ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE, acquired by Museum Abteiberg in 2017, will be developed as a Schaumagazin (display storage) located within the museum’s collection galleries, serving as a central site for research into Fluxus and art of the 1960s and 1970s. To prepare for this exhibition format, the final Field Test invites public feedback: What aspects of the Field Test series did visitors like? What would they like to see in the planned Schaumagazin?
The feedback gathered will inform the design of future presentations of the complete holdings of the ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE in the coming years. At the same time, works from the alphabetical section S (as in “Saito”) through A (as in “Ay-O”) take center stage, bringing the exhibition series—launched in 2021 with “B” as in “Beuys”—to its conclusion.
Takako Saito’s many chess works underscore the central importance of play within Fluxus. Play Chess with the Sun! (1993) consists of a pair of sunglasses in a case. A chessboard is painted onto the right lens, while the left lens carries the simple invitation, “HELLO! LET’S PLAY CHESS.” There are, however, no chess pieces. Trained as an educator, Takako Saito has explored since
the 1950s the idea that every person possesses creative potential. Her chess works activate these creative capacities by requiring participants to invent the rules of the game themselves. Other Fluxus artists, including Ay-O and Ben Vautier, likewise developed works that invite play, reflecting the participatory and networked character of Fluxus.
ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE Field Test #5: Saito – Ay-O brings together works and documents by Takako Saito and Ay-O, as well as those by Tomas Schmit, Mieko Shiomi, Daniel Spoerri, André Thomkins, Ben Vautier, and Wolf Vostell.
Dorothee and Erik Andersch (both 1940–2021) were central figures in the Rhineland Fluxus network of the 1960s and 1970s. At the Regenbogen student residence in Düsseldorf, they provided accommodation for several artists, including Takako Saito, and developed close friendships. From these personal connections, a collection began to take shape in 1968 that embraced a broad understanding of Fluxus.
While Field Test #5: Saito – Ay-O remains on view through November 22, 2026, the project team is working behind the scenes on two parallel initiatives: the development of an online collection for the new Museum Abteiberg website and the long-term goal of establishing a Schaumagazin within the museum’s collection galleries. Such a format would make it possible to house the heterogeneous components of the holdings—art collection, archive, and library—in a single location, ensuring appropriate conservation while also enabling exhibition and access for research. Making the holdings publicly searchable through an online collection is a crucial step toward this goal.
The ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE project was initiated through acquisition funding from the Kulturstiftung der Länder, the State of North Rhine–Westphalia, and the Hans Fries Foundation. From 2021 to 2024, the cataloguing and exhibition of the holdings were supported by the Forschungsvolontariat Kunstmuseen NRW (a research fellowship program for art museums in North Rhine–Westphalia), with additional funding from the Hans Fries Foundation. Since 2025, the project has been funded by the Hans Fries Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine–Westphalia.
EVA BRANSCOME
Hans Hollein’s Masterpiece Art, Architecture and the City
Book Presentation
in cooperation with the Architecture program at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf
A major new study by the Austro-American architectural historian Eva Branscome on the conceptual and architectural history of Museum Abteiberg has just been published by Lund Humphries, London. The publication was supported by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and is based on Branscome’s research in the archives of Hans Hollein and Museum Abteiberg, as well as her in-depth cultural and historical reflection on early postmodernism. In cooperation with the Architecture program at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf—where the Viennese architect Hans Hollein held a professorship from 1967 to 1976—Eva Branscome and Museum Abteiberg will present and discuss the book’s central theses on February 1.
Opened in 1982, Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach was immediately praised for its integration into the urban fabric, a reception that contributed to architect and artist Hans Hollein being awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1985. In this book, Eva Branscome, Professor of Architecture and Heritage at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, reassesses the influential building, which quickly became a site of pilgrimage for art and architecture. The study explores the role of museums as “cultural hinges” whose architecture and artworks connect them to the surrounding city. Drawing on a range of exhibitions, including those by Joseph Beuys and Daniel Buren, the book examines innovative approaches to curating contemporary art—such as the rejection of the traditional enfilade model, in which one room leads directly to the next—and considers how buildings and collections can reflect the city and community around them. Many of the ideas first realized at Museum Abteiberg reshaped museum architecture at the time and continue to challenge museum practice today.
250 × 190 mm, 192 pages, 80 black-and-white and 20 color illustrations
ISBN 978-1-84822-715-6, hardback, £49.99
Athanor NOW: Reflections and Fluidities
On Material and Process, Taking Sigmar Polke’s 1986 Biennale Cycle as a Point of Departure
Public Study Day
organized by the Anna Polke Foundation and the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM) at Museum Abteiberg
November 7, 2026
The processual transformation of material under the influence of moisture and heat was a defining feature of Sigmar Polke’s major cycle of works for the German Pavilion at the 1986 Venice Biennale, curated by Dierk Stemmler, then director of Museum Abteiberg. The artistic ideas articulated in this series—now on view in the museum’s collection galleries—continue to resonate in contemporary art through fluid exhibition formats and experimental practices, where they are taken up as material- and eco-critical reflections. Organized in cooperation by the Anna Polke Foundation and the Academy of Media Arts Cologne (KHM), the study day focuses on research into material and process, as well as performative interventions. In reference to Sigmar Polke’s artistic practice, Museum Abteiberg becomes a site for exploring the reflective and the fluid—the reflections and fluidities of materiality.
Part of Sigmar Polke. Athanor NOW, a project of the Anna Polke Foundation. Throughout the year, guided tours, short guided tours on the first Sundays, and a creative booklet for children will focus more on the six plastic seal images in the museum’s educational programme
EDUCATION / PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Museum Abteiberg responds to social challenges and change. Questions of inclusion and integration play an increasingly important role in the conception of its educational and public programs.
Intercultural outreach projects such as Künstlerisch zusammen (Creating Together) work with participatory formats involving children and young people. With the two-year project Mein Viertel. Mein Museum (My Neighborhood. My Museum), Museum Abteiberg opens itself further to the city. In collaboration with the Kunstmuseum Krefeld and local partner organizations, the museum develops new forms of cultural participation between urban neighborhoods and the museum. Future educational programs will increasingly be shaped in dialogue with focus groups.
Media-education programs at Museum Abteiberg—such as the GameLab and the film and animation workshops—teach techniques of audiovisual media production. The youth-run podcast editorial team Museums-Gangsters will continue broadcasting from the museum in 2026. The program brings young voices and creative engagement with contemporary art into dialogue with critical reflection on digital media and its use.
UNIVERSITY TEACHING IN THE MUSEUM
Museum Abteiberg is leaning into its collaboration with the Cultural Education degree program at Hochschule Niederrhein. The student-organized ArtLabLunch at Museum Abteiberg puts participatory university teaching into practice, combining active knowledge-building with hands-on experience.
OPEN TO SCHOOLS:
THE CITY’S MOST BEAUTIFUL CLASSROOM
Cultural education engages with the challenges of the present and mediates key competencies for navigating a multi-perspectival reality—a prerequisite for cultural and social participation.
Museum Abteiberg is taking part in a cross-institutional pilot project with five primary schools offering rhythm-based full-day programs. The project supports the long-term development of structurally anchored cultural-education initiatives in Mönchengladbach. Closely coordinated funding programs enable children and young people to experience a sequence of interrelated cultural activities.
FIRST SUNDAY
Each month sees a number of visitors take advantage of FIRST SUNDAY, which offers free admission, hourly guided tours, and an open painting class: an opportunity to get to know Museum Abteiberg. The FIRST SUNDAY program is aimed at a broad audience and is designed to reduce barriers to access. Supported by Stadtsparkasse Mönchengladbach, the program will continue in 2026.
THIRD THURSDAY
open until 10 pm.
With extended opening hours until 10 pm., THIRD THURSDAY provides an open evening for content-driven programs. The series is developed by the young MG-Artfriends group within the museum association (Museumsverein Abteiberg), alongside new collaborations with local associations and independent groups. The concert series POP-UP-PARADISO, organized by Museumsverein Abteiberg, will continue in 2026.
The EVENING ACADEMY in the painting studio offers creative workshops for adults led by instructors from artistic practice. Participants explore different approaches to artistic thinking and making together, becoming familiar with both classical and interdisciplinary techniques and media of contemporary art.
[Caption]
Fig. 01 Urban cut-through, Photo: Susanne Titz
Fig. 02 Grant Mooney, sphere music, 2025. Installation view, Chisenhale Gallery, London, 2025, Photo: Andy Keate
Fig. 03 Takako Saito, Play Chess with the Sun, 1993, ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE, Museum Abteiberg. © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025. Photo: Ludwig Kuffer
Fig. 04 Installation view, ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE Field Test #5: Saito – Ay-O, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach. Photo: Achim Kukulies
Fig. 05 Book cover: Eva Branscome, Hans Hollein’s Masterpiece: Art, Architecture and the City
Fig. 06 Logo Athanor Now, Anna Polke Stiftung
Fig. 07 Anna, Der Freiheitszauberstab (The Magic Wand of Freedom), 2025. Photo: Lucie Gorzolka