Opening July 9, 2026 at 7 pm

In their exhibition Ideal Forms and Raw Material, artists Olaf Holzapfel and Raul Walch draw our attention to air, water, plants and earth. These are elements so familiar that we take them for granted and rarely question them. Yet these things are defining elements of our existence; they shape landscapes, climates and regions, and define our atmospheric experience of the world. And it is precisely because these things are so ubiquitous and ordinary that they encapsulate the key social issues of our time: climate change, technological development and a sense of belonging.

Olaf Holzapfel and Raul Walch have been exploring the intersections between material, form and ideas for years. Esslingen’s architectural and craft traditions provide a rich point of reference for the exhibition. In half-timbered buildings and weaving, nature and technology come together, drawing on the geometries of plants, patterns of repetition and counting systems. This way of thinking in terms of structures, interconnections and patterns is reflected both in the city’s history and in its architecture. To this day, the landscape of the Neckar Valley and its infrastructure bear witness to movement, trade and industrial development. Industrial modernism has not disappeared. It lives on in building styles, infrastructure and ideas, and shapes the way we see things. The exhibition explores how, in the wake of the end of modernity, our sense of belonging distorts our perspective on issues of material, form and the environment.