überZeichnung – Jahresausstellung 2025 der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Künste

In the organizer's words:

aboutDrawing - Annual Exhibition 2025 of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts

8.10.25 - 12.12.25 - The annual exhibition will be opened as part of this year's Leo Brandt event on Wednesday, October 8, 2025.

"überZeichnung" is the title of the 2025 annual exhibition of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. With their sketches and working notes, 25 members of all classes of the Academy will provide rare and intimate insights into the process of creating an idea. In addition to pencil drawings and manuscripts, formats such as 3D prints, copies, digital visualizations and examples of AI-supported drawing are also on display.

Drawing is an archaic medium that shapes art and science with energetic power. Many works have their origins in a sketch whose lines first outline an idea. From this moment on, the idea is in the world and subject to its laws.

In the development and growth of the idea, the drawing sometimes stands as a transit for complex planning in sculpture, choreography or film development, but also for the realization of buildings, machines or processes. Sometimes it abstracts as an independent work of the same complexity and throws its impression back into the world visually. Advancing digitalization and generative artificial intelligence have multiplied the possibilities of sketching without taking away the power of the medium of drawing.

For the annual exhibition 2025 of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts, 24 members of all classes have made their sketches and working notes available. The compilation allows a rare and intimate look at the moment when an idea comes into the world in very different artistic and scientific disciplines. At the same time, it conveys the transformation of the working technique of sketching on its always permeable border between drawing, text and model making. In addition to pencil drawings and handwriting, formats such as 3D prints, copies, digital visualizations and examples of AI-supported drawing are also on display.

Also present are:

Maria de Alvear (composer), Prof. Dr. Katrin Amunts (brain researcher), Prof. Rozbeh Asmani (visual artist), Corinna Belz (director), Prof. Julia B. Bolles-Wilson (architect), Prof. Dr. Gerd Blum (art historian), Prof. Anthony Cragg (visual artist), Prof. Dr. Jürgen Hammerstaedt (art historian) and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Hammerstaedt (visual artist). Dr. Jürgen Hammerstaedt (papyrologist), Prof. Heike Hanada (architect), Prof. Dr. Gerd Heusch (physiopathologist), Prof. Henrietta Horn (choreographer), Jürgen Klauke (visual artist), Dr. Josef Kleinheinrich (book artist), Prof. Dr. Jochen Kreusel (book artist), Prof. Dr. Jochen Kreusel (book designer). Dr. Jochen Kreusel (electrical engineer), Prof. Mischa Kuball (conceptual artist), Christiane Löhr (visual artist), Prof. Dr. Christoph Nonn (historian), Prof. Marcel Odenbach (media artist). Marcel Odenbach (media artist), Marion Poschmann (writer), Andreas Schmitten (visual artist), Markus Stockhausen (musician), Prof. Dr. Hans Peter Thurn (cultural sociologist), Christoph Ingenhoven (architect), Prof. Cornelius Völker (painter), Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zielinski (media theorist)

Concept and realization: Prof. Anthony Cragg, Prof. Mischa Kuball and Claudia Parton.

Price information:

The exhibition can only be visited independently on the opening day (08.10.2025). Afterwards, the exhibition can only be visited as part of a guided tour (22.10.2025, 13.11.2025, 25.11.2025, 03.12.2025 and 12.12.2025 (finissage)) or on request. Please let us know at anmeldung@awk.nrw.de if you would like to take part in a guided tour.