Press text

Please note: The use of the image material is only permitted free of charge in connection with current journalistic reporting on the relevant exhibitions and events, provided the copyright is named. Cropping of the illustrations is not permitted.

Around 70 works by artists from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries – including Hede Bühl, Heinz Mack, Otto Piene and David Rabinowitch – explore this timeless subject and develop it further. Unusual materials, physical processes and experimental techniques in paintings, sculptures, works on paper and expansive installations demonstrate how these elements have found their place in art. Furthermore, thematic references serve as a bridge between natural and human-made worlds. The focus of the show is on the interplay between nature, art and science.

With works from the Kemp Collection and additional exhibits from the Kunstpalast’s holdings, The Fifth Element invites visitors to rediscover the connections that exist here on earth.

The Kemp Collection

The Kemp Collection is one of the most outstanding German private collections of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art. Alongside abstract paintings, works by the ZERO group, sculptures and works on paper, exceptional works of Art Informel and colour field painting form the core of the collection, which was established by Willi Kemp together with his wife Ingrid, who sadly passed away at an early age. In 2011, around 3000 works were donated to the Kunstpalast and Kemp established the Kemp Collection Foundation for the research and mediation of the collection. His donation has significantly enriched the Kunstpalast collection and is regularly presented in exhibitions.