Performing Landscapes — Leopold-Hoesch-Museum Düren

A Federal Art House in a City of 90,000

The Leopold-Hoesch-Museum is a minor sensation: in the middle of Düren — a medium-sized West German city rarely perceived as an art venue — the city has operated a museum since 1905 that regularly makes it onto the recommendation lists of international art critics. In 2026, the museum presents a year-long program that underpins this position: spring solo Wilhelm Schürmann, summer double feature 'Performing Landscapes' & Adrián Balseca, autumn Peill awards Quintanilha / Schweizer.

'Performing Landscapes' — The Summer Exhibition

Opening on June 13, 2026, 'Performing Landscapes' asks about the performative character of landscape. Who 'makes' landscape? Which bodies move within it — touristically, colonizingly, fleeing, climatically changed? Which voices are inscribed in forests, deserts, and seas? International artists respond to these questions with film, sculpture, installation, and performance — using the spaces of the Leopold-Hoesch-Museum as an experimental stage. The exhibition runs into early autumn 2026.

Adrián Balseca — 'A Chiasmatic Body'

Opening simultaneously is the solo exhibition 'A Chiasmatic Body' by Ecuadorian artist Adrián Balseca. Balseca works at the intersection of ecological history, postcolonial theory, and material-based sculpture. His installations reconstruct histories of raw material extraction in Latin America — from the Amazon rubber boom to contemporary oil economies — translating them into haptic, often fragile objects.

Wilhelm Schürmann — 'Nachbarn' (Spring)

Until May 24, 2026, the museum is showing the photo exhibition 'Nachbarn' by Wilhelm Schürmann — a tribute to the Düren surroundings of the Aachen-based photographer and collector, who has been a central figure in the Rhenish photography scene for decades. The exhibition combines biographical topography with documentary-poetic visual language.

Autumn 2026 — The Peill Awards

On September 27, 2026, the museum opens the annual Peill exhibitions, marking two of the most prestigious awards for young art in Germany:

• Dudu Quintanilha — Peill Scholarship Holder: Brazilian-German artist living in Berlin, working with film, performance, and theater
• Maya Schweizer — Peill Prize Winner: Filmmaker with German-French roots, whose works on memory, migration, and urban spaces have gained international recognition

The Museum as Architecture and Institution

The Leopold-Hoesch-Museum was donated in 1905 by the Düren industrialist Leopold Hoesch and built on Hoeschplatz. Today, it houses a collection focusing on European art of the 20th and 21st centuries (Beuys, Brus, Polke, Lüpertz, Genzken). Directly next door is the Papiermuseum Düren, documenting the city's paper industry history (Düren was one of the most important European paper centers). Both houses are operated jointly.