The new gallery in Munich⎮tz⎮Münchner Merkur

Judith Fegerl is the best example. Anyone who looks at the art of the Viennese woman without any prior knowledge will be irritated at first. A good condition. Because that means that something is happening in the brain room. Only if nobody is there to "pick you up", as they say today, does the irritation remain. Then the works are nice to look at, but the questions they contain about social conditions fizzle out. Dietlinde Behncke wants to change that. She is therefore doing what anyone who knows the expensive real estate prices in Munich, which is rich in galleries, considers courageous: Dietlinde Behncke will open her own art gallery on January 31, 2023. And is not afraid at all. On the contrary: I'm more energetic than ever," says the euphoric hostess the day before the opening. The sun's rays shine particularly hard this morning through the arched windows of the gallery at Ludwigstrasse 7.

Behncke, who has been a cultural manager and journalist for many years, for example in the ZDF capital city studio in Berlin or in the Deutsche Guggenheim Museum, is therefore changing sides. Instead of reporting on art or “just” presenting it, she will sell it herself in the future. “If not now, then when?” she thought to herself during the corona pandemic years. And now makes her dream, which has been slumbering in her for a long time, come true. But honestly, an analogue gallery, when many nowadays only rely on digital, ultimately also to save on rent? "I want real, direct encounters with art," she replies. "Photos or videos of it can only ever be teasers, you have to experience them yourself! Analogous."

Therefore, the unique selling point of her gallery shall be that it invites to after-work talks every week. Every long Thursday everyone is welcome to stop by after work and talk to interesting guests from science, culture and politics about current topics. Enlivened by the works of art that surround you here.

Judith Fegerl is the first. Behncke consciously starts her exhibition program with an established artist, who is shown institutionally in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, for example, and is traded at international fairs such as Frieze London and Art Basel. "In the course of the year it will be a wildly mixed program," promises the gallery owner. From April 25 to June 16, for example, you can see and buy the powerful works of the Munich painters Janka Zöller and Elisa Breyer - and talk about topics such as modern femininity at the after-work evenings. Both artists are master students of Karin Kneffel.

The topics of our time are discussed in the ludwig space

Meanwhile, Judith Fegerl is busy with the topic of energy. Sounds theoretical. But if you then talk to the artist, who was born in 1977, exactly what Dietlinde Behncke would have wished for happens: a highly interesting world opens up to you. On the wall to the right are two massive steel pillars. Both are separated in the middle. They are held together by two electromagnetic fields. The poles remain upright as long as the power supply is not interrupted. The artist would like to point out the fragility of the infrastructure on which we all depend. "Most of the time, we perceive these completely unthinkingly as constantly given and stable. This work should also make us physically aware that we are actually in a danger zone," stresses Fegerl. And you can really feel how dangerous it could be for your own big toe if the two steel pillars actually ran out of juice.

A highly topical issue, not just since the start of the Ukraine war. "That's exactly what art achieves: in dealing with it, you feel that you are part of the time in which you live. You take part in the discourse with all your senses,” says Behncke. She once founded the PIN. Young Circle, the young club of the support group of the Pinakothek der Moderne, which enables art lovers up to the age of 40 to pay a reduced membership fee. And so she would like to address these young people in her gallery who are just beginning to collect art. The cheapest works are available here for a low four-digit range. “I look forward to getting people excited about art. Everyone is welcome!"

The opening of ludwig space, Ludwigstraße 7, is on January 31, 2023 from 5 p.m. Opening hours: Tue.-Fri. 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday to 8 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.