Aribert and Jonas are father and son. They were born in the same village and even had the same midwife. Yet the frame for being an artist in their respective times was very different, and left a mark on their artistic paths.
What unites them, however, is values passed down not by institutions but by lived practice: hospitality and generosity, openness toward others, and a disdain for hierarchy.
Aribert’s generation was assured of a better future: the end of war, economic growth, and a stable world order had created a social climate in which even post-bohemian artists could make a living and raise a family. Free artists helped legitimize the liberal prospect of the Federal Republic and after 1968, the general agreement was: fascism never again.
It was a good time to make imaginative, confusing collages, peppered with references to monumental sculpture. Works often unsuitable for the market, yet full of love and freedom to stand in the open. Against the manageable black and white backdrop of the Cold War, colorful minds spinning complexities had a rich time.
Then came the cuts. First: “the end of history”: no more debate, no more criticality. Then: the dogma of efficiency, professionalization, corporate identity with a dose of relaxed yet aggressive PR. A harsher wind blew through the hemispheres, reshaping aesthetics. Digital portfolios, medals, and networks replaced chance and openness. Did you go to the right school?
Well, if there are no launch platforms left, you have to invent one.
In Günsterode, a village in the middle of Germany, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree. Near the great grand mother’s house where Aribert was creating art forty years earlier, Jonas built a constructivist-style wooden house, perched on a hillside. More than a dwelling, it is a hospitable sculpture, thanks to a network of friends and the village community itself.
Since 2021, this fruitful microstructure has become an artistic hub called Los Angeles; a place where city and countryside intersect, where urban artists shift their focus, where hospitality and generosity continue, adapted to a new era.
From outgrowing collage and bursted fantasy to useful sculpture and pragmatic poetry, from the promises of prosperity to the politics of austerity, openness and hospitality are like water: they always find their way.
