This house gives me more freedom than any millionaire’s villa, “says Reinhard Riederer and smiles. Sure, a lot of money could be made with house number 18 on Grafinger Marktplatz, but that doesn’t matter to the owner. He’d rather use the space for himself, for others, for what he sees as meaningful. So over time a hodgepodge of purposes has arisen for this historic house – and now another is added: Riederer has created a space for art, “Werkstatt 18” is the working title Saturday, October 30th, there will be a closing event by anarcho-artist Mike “Spike” Froidl.
Most Grafingers know the Brandstetter-Haus as a bike shop. Bikes were sold here for decades, most of them still without an “E”, Riederer had taken over the shop from his father-in-law. But at some point, after decades, he sold the business and it has now moved to another location in Grafing. Today the fair world shop is located at Marktplatz 18 and next to it there is a motorcycle spare parts shop, which is mainly online. You have to know: Riederer’s passion is old motorcycles, which he repairs with the patience of an angel and then uses for excursions, he has already been to the North Cape and in Calabria. “I am happy every day that I am still so fit and awake,” says the 68-year-old, “that I can make trips like this”.
Reinhard Riederer with a painting that he bought at the Moosach Meta Theater. “I just couldn’t say no to that.”
(Photo: Christian Endt)
Yes, this Grafinger, who actually studied social education, has an eventful life and many talents, that quickly becomes clear on a tour of his house. Here the motorcycle gear, there a model airplane or a self-welded racing bike, plus countless books and paintings. Some of the pictures even come from Riederer himself, because he also caught fire early on for painting. He has always dealt intensively with art, he says, and especially during a year in the USA he learned a lot, painted and photographed. Even studying at the academy was once his goal, says the 68-year-old. So he went to many vernissages in Munich – but that quickly disaffected him. “Always the same faces, and you just have to be able to sell yourself well.” In addition, there were considerable self-doubts, which at some point even led him not to touch a brush. His favorite picture is a beautiful portrait of a young man in the style of the Dutchman Jan Vermeer, who is able to express youthful innocence and doubt in equal measure. “I really succeeded – but after that I knew I would never, never make it again,” says Riederer with a painful smile. Demands and abilities were just too wide apart for him. “You just never get to Kokoschka!”
And so the painter became a collector. Reinhard Riederer began to use the “rich and good scene” in the district, to visit exhibitions, to make contacts with regional artists and to buy works. He is particularly enthusiastic about Franziska Polzer-Foreman and calls her works “unique”. And the Grafing artist actually came up with a special technique: She creates abstract pictures from scraps of fabric, which she sews together in layers and then cuts apart again. This creates graphic elements with repetitive lines, translucent colors and exciting, soft three-dimensionality. In any case, Riederer is enthusiastic. “Seeing art is just an uplifting feeling for me,” he says, “just like motorcycles”.
Mike Froidl combines Far Eastern and Western influences.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
And that’s where the Brandstetter house comes into play again. It not only consists of the two shops in the front, but also offers plenty of space behind and on the first floor. Riederer is now tinkering with his motorcycles where countless bicycles used to be parked and repaired. But the room is by no means just a workshop, it is now also a two-story gallery. The Grafinger soon decorated the walls with his purchases – and then came up with the idea of making the area available for exhibitions and vernissages.
The first reference to the new art space “Werkstatt 18” is in the shop window of the spare parts store, here Riederer exhibits changing works of art. And amazingly successful, as he emphasizes. “People are interested, happy and have already bought one or the other out of the window.” There are currently three works to be seen there: a sailor named “Poppei” by the Moosach painter Stefan Heide and a photograph by Marilyn Monroe from 1951 in which the actress looks critically to the left – directly at another work, a wobbly image that is also Monroe shows, but in two different versions, once à la Warhol, once à la Banksy. “She’s probably thinking: What kind of icon have you made of me?” Says Riederer and laughs at his successful combination. A small poster invites you to the Froidl exhibition.
“Werkstatt 18” on Grafingen’s market square offers old motorcycles and contemporary art.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
If you walk past the house to the left into the alley, a cord hangs on the wall with a bicycle bell attached to the top of the window. Because Riederer lives on the first floor and has set up a small apartment there so that he can grant admission to the gallery almost at any time. However, if you want to be on the safe side and meet the host, you should make an appointment beforehand by phone.
However, Riederer struggles with advertising, especially on the Internet. “I’m very well networked in analogue, but not digitally,” he says. That is why he is primarily looking for artists who can mobilize many people themselves. For example, he is currently in conversation with Ingrid Köhler from Zorneding, “I hope to be able to persuade you to an exhibition”. The hobby gallery owner estimates ten percent of possible sales, but he offers his generous space, help with transport and drinks for the vernissage. As far as the art style of the exhibitors is concerned, Riederer is completely open, as he says, even if he is personally drawn more and more to abstract painting. “But what is important to me is the quality, it has to be right.”
As with Froidl, who once studied at the Academy in Munich. The politically provocative art of Berlin punk is not necessarily Riederer’s case, but Froidl is “a bundle of energy and an incredibly good entertainer with a cinematic hand”. At the closing event, the all-round artist will be showing his experimental film “Luther fuck off”. In keeping with the Reformation Day, Froidl wants to show the theologian’s dark sides, which are usually only hinted at or played down. In doing so, Luther waged a “ruthless campaign against human rights, witches, Anabaptists, the disabled and Jews”. In art, Mike Froidl is committed to Fluxus, but there is also another genre, Far Eastern calligraphy. In Froidl’s scroll paintings, Eastern and Western art come together, with wild combinations in the sense of kimono and Kalashnikov.
The Brandstetter house, by the way, dates back to 1873. It was already in acute danger of collapsing, says the owner, but he has invested a lot of money and it is now stable. Only the heavy traffic around the Grafingen market square is “a nightmare” because of the noise and the vibrations that shook the walls so that the facade was cracked again. Nonetheless, the location in the center is also an obligation for Reinhard Riederer, he says that with his house he wants to contribute to the cultural revitalization. “And for me personally, the gallery is of course also a great asset.”
“Workshop 18” at Grafinger Marktplatz: Mike Spike Froidl, “Masked Chaos! – Painting, Graphics and Film”, closing event on Saturday, October 30th, at 7 pm. Gallery owner Reinhard Riederer can be reached at (0162) 634 93 84.