Sculpture Spots 2026

An art fair is a space of intensified perception. Paths intersect, lines of sight compete, and attention shifts constantly. This year’s Sculpture Spots at Art Düsseldorf explore precisely this phenomenon. The selected works do not merely occupy the space; they interact with it: they interrupt walking paths, focus the gaze, open up passageways, or block them. Here, visitors’ encounters with the works do not occur from a safe distance, but rather as they pass by, circle around, step aside, or even draw closer. Sculpture thus appears less as an isolated object and more as a spatial configuration that physically shapes the fair experience.

This can already be observed in works whose form does not aim for closure or mass. Alexandra Searles’ Swell, for example, retains its form solely through air pressure; stability here is not a given state, but rather something provisional. From this, a more general shift can also be described: many of the works on display break away from the notion of sculpture as a compact, self-contained form. Instead, open arrangements, fragile balances, and structures emerge in which material, space, and relationship interlock.

This development affects not only form but also the art-historical horizon within which sculpture is interpreted. For a long time, permanence, self-containedness, and autonomy were cited as central qualities of sculptural practice. The positions gathered here, mostly by younger artists, shift this emphasis. They more frequently rely on permeability or situational change. Classical materials and techniques remain present but lose their primacy as guarantors of authority.

Lucia Kempkes’ Dissolving in Heat combines pigmented cotton with galvanized steel, creating a tension between soft sections and a load-bearing metal structure. Amélie Esterházy’s Simulacrum #4 establishes its presence less through spatial expansion and atmosphere. Norbert Bisky’s Lit j draws on elements of urban infrastructure, transforming streetlights and signage into an exaggerated assemblage. Julien Hübsch’s LOOPS works with construction debris chutes, developing them into a circulating form that evokes logistical processes and endless feedback loops.

Other works blur the boundaries between surface, form, and spatial arrangement. Iris Helena Hamers combines printed aluminum with braided fishing line to create a structure that, depending on the viewer’s perspective, shifts between a picture plane and a sculptural form. Juergen Staack’s Communication Model 01 takes the form of a telephone booth, bringing a familiar object of communication into the context of the exhibition. Jan Albers’ bronze twintwisteR captures the impression of a twist, as if movement had frozen for a moment. Thomas Wachholz’s Delta translates the motif of the matchstick into a durable material without entirely losing its ephemeral quality. Gereon Krebbers’ Fitting appears as a structure in transition: not clearly an object, not clearly a body, but rather a form that is just beginning to stabilize.

Material transformations also stand out clearly. In Our Last Stone (Marmo III), Abdus Salaam works with marble elements precisely arranged in relation to one another, their weight and balance positioned in such a way that the stone appears almost soft. Ayaka Terajima’s unglazed ceramics draw attention to transitions and the visibility of the manufacturing process. Xenia Bond’s Butt Sniffers bring a playful, unsettling physicality to the site:
hybrid figures that oscillate between the animal, the mechanical, and the social. Martin Waldes’ OUT OF THE BLUE TO AN OPEN END does not function as a self-contained individual work, but rather as a piece that engages with architectural conditions and reveals itself through this relationship. Inge Schmidt’s Schnittstücke also employ organizing and structuring processes without coalescing into a fixed unity.

It is precisely within the context of the fair that it becomes clear how strongly the impact of these works depends on their placement, their surroundings, and movement. The hall is not a neutral backdrop, but a space for action shaped by the direction of the gaze, economic concentration, and constant circulation. The curatorial arrangement of the sculpture sites responds to this not with a claim to monumental assertion, but with works that allow for openness, friction, shifts in scale, and unstable equilibria. This creates a structure in which sculpture does not conclude, but rather makes relationships visible.

Written by Pola van den Hövel, curator of Sculpture Spots.