current exhibition
MICHAEL VOLKMER
Mannheimer Midcareer Award for Fine Arts
06.09.2025 – 09.11.2025

Photo: Alexander Kästel;
Michael Volkmer, The spirits I summoned, 2023, MDF, Glass, Lacquer 350cm X 98cm
When everything is all in one colour, how do we then perceive the shapes of things? How strongly does colour, in fact, influence the way we see everyday objects? And does our aesthetic experience depend on the context in which we are seeing a thing? Michael Volkmer’s signature colour is the shade RAL1015 that bears the colour name Light ivory. This shade is so neutral that it attracts no attention; the eye is focused entirely on the shape. RAL1015 is probably the most obvious commonality among Michael Volkmer’s sculptural works. His itinerant memorial to the victims of forced sterilisations, on the move through Mannheim since 2013, is one of those sculptures in this neutral shade.
Michael Volkmer paints elaborately designed spirit bottles in this shade, arranges them in pyramids so they look like art deco skyscrapers, and lends the whole a title that is humorously ironic and ambiguous at once: ‘The Spirits I Summoned’. Some of his wall objects have the lovely appeal of rose windows in Gothic cathedrals – except they are monochrome. The ornamental lattices, however, come from wholly profane hubcaps, of the kind we occasionally find at the roadside. Volkmer installs them into MDF casings and illuminates them. It is just a small step from the transcendental light experience to the plain illuminated object. Michael Volkmer plays with the casualness of the familiar and mundane, queries the ostensibly safe, lends trash the appearance of sublimity and in doing so, demonstrates to us quite incidentally the fragility of our value system. In ‘COLLOQUIUM PORT25’, an installation that he varies site-specifically according to location, Volkmer assembles non-functioning lamp stands on pedestals, transforming the stands into sculpture. He matches them by painting them the same shade, simultaneously steering attention onto the diversity of shapes in this assemblage. Meanwhile, the light is provided by uniformly shaped modern fluorescent tubes, whereas the lamp stands are now mere relicts of past times.
For the first time, the Heinrich Vetter Stiftung and the Cultural Office of the City of Mannheim are jointly handing over the ‘Mannheim Midcareer Award for Fine Art’ – an endowed distinction for fine artists aged 40+. The associated exhibition will take place in PORT25 – Raum für Gegenwartskunst. The installation and conceptual artist Michael Volkmer, born in Ludwigshafen in 1966, studied at the Freie Akademie Rhein-Neckar in Mannheim and has exhibited regularly for more than thirty years. With fellow artist Eric Carstensen he established superart.tv, a duo of video artists devoted to critical artistic nonsense. Every four years, the ‘Mannheim Midcareer Award for Fine Art’ is scheduled to distinguish artists who have been active in the region for many years and hence render an important contribution to cultural life.
Born in Ludwigshafen in 1966, installation and conceptual artist Michael Volkmer studied at the Freie Akademie Rhein Neckar in Mannheim and has been exhibiting regularly for over 30 years.
Together with fellow artist Eric Carstensen, he founded superart.tv, a video artist duo dedicated to critical artistic nonsense. The ‘Mannheimer Midcareer Award for Fine Arts’
will be awarded every four years to artists who have been active in the region for many years and have made an important contribution to cultural life.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
Award ceremony of the ‘Mannheim Midcareer Award for Fine Art’ to Michael Volkmer by the Heinrich Vetter Stiftung and the Cultural Office of the City of Mannheim
19 September 2025, 7 p.m. A welcome address will be given by Thorsten Riehle, Mayor for Culture, and Deputy Chairman Prof. Dr. Markus Haass speaks on behalf of the Heinrich Vetter Stiftung. Afterwards there will be an artist talk with Miachael Volkmer.


360°- tour of the exhibition
EVENTS
OPENINGS
Friday, 05 September 2025 | 7 pm
Opening of the exhibition: MICHAEL VOLKMER, Mannheim Midcareer Award for Fine Arts
Friday, 10 October 2025 | 7 pm
Opening ef the exhibition: EXTRABLATT: Katinka Eichhorn
EVENTS AT PORT25
Friday, 19 September 2025 | 7 pm
Awarding of the ‘Mannheim Midcareer Award for Fine Arts’ to Michael Volkmer by the Heinrich Vetter Stiftung and the Cultural Office of the City of Mannheim. A welcome address will be given by Thorsten Riehle, Mayor for Culture, and Deputy Chairman Prof. Dr. Markus Haass speaks on behalf of the Heinrich Vetter Stiftung.
Thursday, 25 September 2025 | 7 pm
"Sprechen wir über... "
Ute Petry, "Ateliertisch mit Staffelei", 1986, mixed media on canvas, 100 x 100 cm
Admission free
Saturday, 11 October 2025 | 4 pm
elektrosmog concert: Series Invisible Soundart/Non-Soundart by Christoph Korn and Lasse-Marc Riek
Thursday, 30 October 2025 | 7 pm
BBK Werkgespräch #15 with Tom Feritsch and Gabriel Gruß
Thursday, 06 November 2025 | 7 pm
"Sprechen wir über... "
Peter Schnatz, "Erinnerungen an Lanzarote", 1982, acrylic on canvas, 110 x 130 cm
Admission free
Thursday, 04. December 2025 | 7 pm
ART UP DISKURS: KUNST UND DEMOKRATIE mit Kathrin Röggla
PORT25 AT MANNHEIMER KUNSTVEREIN
Friday, 26 September 2025
Saturday, 27 September 2025 from 12 pm to 10 pm
Sunday, 28.September 2025 from 12 pm to 5 pm
30th Galerientage at Mannheimer Kunstverein
NACHTWANDEL AT PORT25
Friday, 24 October 2025 | 7 pm to 12 pm
Saturday 25 October 2025 | 7 pm to 12 pm
GUIDED TOURS
Thursday, 02 October 2025 | 6 pm
Guided tour in german language
Sunday, 12. October 2025 | 3 pm
Guided tour in russian language with Anna Siebert
Thursday, 16. October 2025 | 6 pm
Guided tour in german language
Thursday, 23. October 2025 | pm
Guided tour in turkish language with Melek Kilic