LANDSTRICHE (exhibition)

Westphalia - a LANDSTRICH with stew, duel, trinity? Or just an administrative district? Westphalian literature - a boozy idea? Doomed to destruction like the Westphalian steamboat and digestible like a bag of salt? Or is it fresh, high-proof and appetising?

The interdisciplinary exhibition project LANDSTRICHE raises these and other questions in artistic installations and literary objects in the setting of the Literature Museum. The material for the site-specific installations by scenographer Jeremias H. Vondrlik are contemporary texts by Hamm-born poet Christoph Wenzel, which make reference to the landscape and cultural characteristics of the region as well as to the collection of the Museum of Westphalian Literature. Selected literary themes and works, as well as blank spaces in the presentation, form the starting point for an artistic and poetic exploration of Westphalia's literary history. The result is a transformation, a poetic condensation of Westphalian literary and cultural history, which can be traced on an outdoor art trail. The spatial, object-like or acoustic installations to be explored enter into a dialogue with the scenic surroundings of the museum park and enable new, sensual-aesthetic experiences of literature. In addition to the installations, the garden house becomes a knowledge centre, a place of documentation where the processes of artistic research can be traced using additional materials and background information on the individual texts and their staging.

A project for the festival "aufbrüche - literaturland westfalen 2025", funded by the LWL-Kulturstiftung as part of the cultural programme for the anniversary year "1250 Jahre Westfalen". The patron of this cultural programme is Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Other sponsors of the festival are the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Savings Banks Association of Westphalia-Lippe and the Cultural Foundation of Westfälische Provinzial Versicherung. The LANDSTRICHE exhibition is supported by the Sparkasse Münsterland Ost Foundation.