THE ART OF PLASTIC Plastic is everywhere. It permeates our everyday lives, is inexpensive and available worldwide. Thanks to their literally astonishing plasticity, plastics soon began to fascinate artists as well - both as a symptom and a symbol of mass culture. In the brief history of the "Plastic Age" the versatile substance transformed though: from the epitome of progress, utopian spirit, and democratization of consumerism into a threat. Plastic World offers a broad panorama of the artistic use of plastic and a position towards a matter that matters to us all. Through more than 100 objects, assemblages, installations, environments and films by some 50 international artists, this catalogue explores a spectrum ranging from the euphoria of pop culture in the 1960s and the futuristic influence of the space age, to the "trash" works of Nouveau Realisme and the ecocritical positions of today. FEATURED ARTISTS: Monira Al Qadiri, Archigram, Arman, Lynda Benglis, Cesar, Christo, Oyvind Fahlstrom, Eva Hesse, Hans Hollein, Craig Kauffman, Kiki Kogelnik, Gino Marotta, James Rosenquist, Pascale Marthine Tayou and Pinar Yolda.

RAF, NSU and IS are acronyms of terrorist groups whose extremist propaganda and political violence challenge the visual arts to react decisively. The exhibition catalogue therefore opens up a highly topical artistic perspective on the history and political iconography of modern terrorism. For the first time, three sections comparatively examine the effects of social revolutionary, far-right, and jihadist terrorism on visual culture. 20 years after September 11, 2001, and ten years after the discovery of the NSU in the fall of 2011, the exhibition and publication together explore the question of how acts of political violence affect cultural memory through the media. Artists: Hiba Al Ansari (SY), Khalid Albaih (SD), Morehshin Allahyari (IR), Francis Alys (BE), Kader Attia (FR), Walter Dahn & Jiri Dokoupil (DE/CZ), Christoph Draeger (CH), Hans-Peter Feldmann (DE), Forensic Architecture (GB/IL), Chloe Galibert-Laine & Kevin B. Lee (FR/US), Gregory Green (USA), Johan Grimonprez (BE), Richard Hamilton (GB), Omar Imam (SY), Christof Kohlhoefer (D/US), Susanne Kriemann (D), Jean-Jacques Lebel (FR), Almut Linde (DE), Georg Lutz (DE), Edouard Manet (FR), Paula Markert (DE), Olaf Metzel (DE), Henrike Naumann (DE), Wolf Pehlke (DE), Ariel Reichman (IL), Gerhard Richter (DE), Thomas Ruff (DE), Ivana Spinelli (IT), Klaus Staeck (DE), Hito Steyerl (DE), J.M. Voltz (DE) Text in English and German.