Since 2022, Bettina van Haaren and Wolfgang Folmer have been developing their individual artistic styles in a joint, dialogical practice. As a duo, they explore the potential of contemporary history painting, which—unlike its historical origins, in which powerful figures commissioned monumental master narratives—does not heroize, but rather reveals the inscriptions of the present: fragile living conditions, physical and social vulnerability, and the noticeable shift toward authoritarian and fascist social models.
In the exhibition “Grundberührung” at the Kunsthalle Trier, Bettina van Haaren and Wolfgang Folmer are creating a large wall piece (5 x 17 m) that will only exist temporarily. In addition, they are presenting new drawings, paintings, and films that reveal different facets of their thinking and working.
Curated by Mehveş Ungan
Bettina van Haaren (born 1961) is a painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Her figurative art conceptually explores inner and outer realities. Her work has been shown in almost 100 solo and over 130 group exhibitions in Europe, the USA, New Zealand, Japan, and China. There are 27 monographic publications about her; she has received numerous awards and scholarships. Since 2000, she has been a professor of drawing and printmaking at TU Dortmund University.
Wolfgang Folmer (born in Merzig in 1960) studied at the Academy in Stuttgart under Prof. Rudolf Schoofs. He works across media in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, and video, often combining his own experimental percussion in large-scale projects in public spaces and performances. A material-oriented approach determines his conceptual elaborations. Wolfgang Folmer has exhibited nationally and internationally and has received awards and scholarships in Sweden, Spain, the USA, Argentina, and China, among other countries. Since 2023, he has been an artistic collaborator at the Institute for Art and Material Culture at TU Dortmund University.
Bettina van Haaren and Wolfgang Folmer have been an artistic duo since 2022. They draw directly on walls and have already completed numerous large-scale projects, including at the Saarland Museum in Saarbrücken (4 x 24 m), the Institute for Contemporary Art in Saarlouis (3.6 x 15 m), the Dortmunder U (2.6 x 25 m), the Gustav Lübcke Museum, Hamm (3 x 8.2 m), the Museum Heilbronn (4 x 13 m), and the Museum Villa Rot (4.2 x 12.5 m).
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