We are pleased to present our 15th anniversary exhibition THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS. Der Wunsch, die Abstraktion at Kienzle Art Foundation Berlin as part of BERLIN ART WEEK.

Established in 2009, the foundation is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year. The exhibition THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS is intended to pay tribute to this. The show is curated by art critic, author and curator Hans-Jürgen Hafner deals with the foundation itself, which its founder and collector Jochen Kienzle sees as a medium in sense of the foundation’s purpose: to actively participate in the production, presentation and communication of art based on the works in the Kienzle Collection.

The thematic group exhibition THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS. Der Wunsch, die Abstraktion, die Stiftung subjects selected works from the Jochen Kienzle Collection to a re-reading that focuses in particular on the aspect of mediality and reflexivity: which visual-artistic, media-critical, discourse- and context-analytical means artists have used to and how they have used them in the sense of their own historically situated artistic project. Against the background of art that is stubbornly focused on the present, topicality and materiality, the exhibition emphasizes the aspect of historical-genealogical development, which is embedded in the formation of collections and institutions – not as the natural “course of things”, but as something that can be shaped, changed and altered, with the Kienzle Art Foundation as point of reference. The Berlin-based artist Elmar Zimmermann will be re-performing his installation “Eine Wand”, which was conceived as a tableau and display for the Kienzle Art Foundation inaugural exhibition “Loose Joints” fifteen years ago, in relation to the current exhibition theme.

On this occasion, the Kienzle Art Foundation Berlin presents itself with a new corporate identity. The new design was developed in collaboration with cmk Büro für Gestaltung Berlin.

Hans-Jürgen Hafner (*1972) works as an art critic, author and exhibition curator. Most recently, he curated the exhibition I AM THE AUDIENCE &/Theorie installieren: „Die Idee des Neuen” at kunstbunker – forum für zeitgenössische kunst, Nuremberg, which dealt with models of fictitious artistic authorship. In collaboration with Daniel Kletke he conceived the first show “Loose Joints” of the Kienzle Art Foundation in 2010 and developed the key aspects of the Jochen Kienzle Collection on abstraction and conceptualization at the turn from modernism to contemporary art. Furthermore, Hafner curated numerous exhibitions, including the first institutional retrospective of concept art pioneer Henry Flynt. From 2011 to 2016, he was director of Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf. He writes for Spike Art Quaterly, Texte zur Kunst, taz and others.