fünfhochzwei [five to the power of two]

Founded in 1989 as a foundation under public law, this year the ZKM | Karlsruhe – meanwhile a world-renowned culture institution – will not merely be taking a retrospective look over its twenty-five year existence. Against the background of the development of such formats as video and photography which, in 1989, were still designated as new media, the founding idea of the ZKM was to establish itself as a center for all media and genres.

In this sense, the exhibition »fünf^hochzwei« [five to the power of two] is to be understood less as an arithmetical problem, the result of which yields the anniversary number. By way of works drawn from the five genres of painting, sculpture, photography, video and drawing the show offers an exemplary insight into the ZKM | Collection, which can meanwhile boast of encompassing 3000 works. The selection of art works focuses on transgressions in cross-genre media: thus, sculptures may be seen mounted on walls much like pictures, and ‘pictorially’ designed videos or drawing generated by the computer.