Although not marketed as an “artists’ quarter”, Sendling and the Schlachthofviertel with the Volkstheater, Interims-Gasteig HP 8, Bahnwärter Thiel and Kulturzentrum Luise are establishing themselves on the cultural city map. Now the local creatives can also be seen in a small exhibition: more than 50 Sendlinger artists show how they approach the topic “What is blooming for us there?” understand and perceive. – An ambiguous title for a local art show in the form of a picture frieze that can be seen in the Sendlinger Kulturschmiede until Saturday, July 29th, i.e. there where experienced Sendlingers have been hearing the real cultural heart of their district beating for 45 years.
In the volunteer-run cultural center on Daiserstraße, 63 artists have come together, each with a work created especially for the exhibition – much more than the director and initiator of the project Marta Reichenberger dared to hope, even if the catchment area includes Thalkirchen and the Isar and Ludwigsvorstadt. Reichenberger already realized the idea of arranging art from the district in a picture volume in 1992 in the Seidlvilla. Of course, the newly opened Schwabinger Bürgerhaus offered plenty of space for the 125 works at that time. In order to bring the unexpected abundance into the 60 square meter small Sendlinger rooms, Reichenberger and her team combined the strict original concept of the frieze with the density of a salon hanging. Professional photographer Martin Liebl, who is also exhibiting, had previously digitized the works and prepared the tinkering virtually.
Reichenberger made the decision to relaunch in autumn 2022 as part of the “idea factory”, a regular creative round. This year’s “Flower Power Festival” provided a city-wide framework and the inspiration for the flowery title. Reichenberger did not want to drive the artists away from their desire for unbroken beauty. Painted floral splendor and idyll alternate with the exact opposite – which sometimes comes across as floral: In the iconography of the peace movement, designer Ilka Hufnagl lets gerberas sprout out of a hand grenade, which, only recognizable on closer inspection, are themselves made of tanks and rockets.
What is blooming for us globally with war, environmental destruction and social divisions also visibly occupies the Sendlinger artists, without letting the show tilt completely into the gloomy or overly striking. Of course, on the other, local side, the “Sendlinger Loch” also makes its debut as an art subject, the ghost construction site on the corner of Alramstrasse and Aberlestrasse, on which nothing has progressed for years. Lisa Böll portrays them as “a tightrope act over a shark tank”. The exhibition also offers neighborhood recognition value with a large photo collage that shows all 63 exhibitors and thus probably one or two familiar faces for local visitors.
The picture frieze of 63 Sendlinger artists is tightly hung.
(Photo: Mark Siaulys Pfeiffer)
The exhibition can be seen daily from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. until Saturday, July 29 in the Kulturschmiede, Daiserstraße 22. On Monday, July 17, from 7 p.m., documentary filmmaker Reinhold Rühl will also be showing two films on the subject of art in Sendling. On Saturday, July 22 and Thursday, July 27, starting at 7 p.m., artists will guide you through the exhibition. The finissage on July 29 from 6 p.m. will be accompanied by Michaela Dietl, a musician with an international profile who is based in Sendling. The exhibited works can be purchased, contact details of the artists can be found on site.