Feb 2 – Feb 22, 2026
Projektbüro DFI e.V.
Exhibition
Imi Knoebel:
Projektion
Eiskellerberg 1-3
40213 Düsseldorf
Opening Hours:
MON, Feb 2, 4–8 pm
TUE–SUN, Feb 3–8,
10 am - 8 pm
SAT/SUN. Feb 14+15, 2–6 pm
SAT/SUN. Feb 21+22, 2–6 pm
Projektion 1, 1971, P1/34 Kontakt 34. Courtesy of the artist.
IMI KNOEBEL AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Between 1968 and 1974, Imi Knoebel—while studying in Joseph Beuys’s class until 1971—developed the series Projektion. Building on his earlier Linienbilder, in which he examined formal orders serially on paper, he translates these two-dimensional structures into space through light projection and photographic processes.
In 1994, author and artist Johannes Stüttgen wrote about Knoebel’s photographic work:
“Imi Knoebel was not only one of the first in Düsseldorf in the late sixties, who used photography as an independent artistic medium in his work, but surely he was also the most resolute and radical in it.”
Johannes Stüttgen, Some remarks on Imi Knoebel's photographic works from 1968 to 1974, 1994. (Full text as PDF)
Presented for the first time in its full scope at the DFI e. V. project office, this corpus, comprising both prints and the complete set of archival contact sheets, reveals an early, formative phase of Knoebel’s work. The photographic image emerges here as the result of an ongoing process: geometric and free forms serve as points of departure, are projected into nocturnal space, and recorded photographically. In viewing these images, space is repeatedly reread and re-contextualized; scale and distance shift.
Here, photography functions as an autonomous artistic practice.
The photographic archive of the series reveals a processual development spanning six years. Through the contact sheets, which display 6,900 negatives, serial variations and the testing of spatial situations can be traced directly. The camera serves here as a tool for an ongoing investigation of light in space.
Projektion 3, 1971, P3/2 Kontakt 33. Courtesy of the artist.
Kontaktbogen Projektion 1, 1971, P1/21. Courtesy of the artist.
The archive is presented in a cabinet containing 152 boxes holding 24 × 30 cm black-and-white prints. This corpus arises directly from the continuous context of the photographic practice.
Knoebel’s procedure is grounded in the physical manipulation of the slide: he first coats the image support with an opaque red masking paint (Schmincke negative retouching paint), then incises precise lines into the painted surface with a scalpel; in parallel, gestural painterly forms arise through the application of paint onto the glass of the slide.
Through these manual interventions, the slide becomes a material between painting and photography. These works form the basis for the light projections he stages in the studio as well as in exterior and urban space. Recorded with an SLR camera, these light–space experiments are ultimately enlarged as baryta prints.
Acess to the archive:
Archive material (contact sheets and prints) can be viewed on site from 3–6 pm by arrangement with the staff during opening hours.
Imi Knoebel, Videostill aus Projektion X, 1972
Video, 40′, b/w, no sound. Courtesy of the artist.
PROJEKTION X
In the second exhibition space, Projektion X (1972) extends the investigation of urban space by adding the dimensions of time and continuous movement.
Realized in collaboration with Gerry Schum for the Fernseh- und Videogalerie Schum, the project documents a continuous forty-minute drive through nocturnal Darmstadt. A projection apparatus mounted on a moving bus casts an “X” onto the city’s architectural fabric, while the camera records this light projection directly.
Through the continuous movement of the vehicle and the projection of light into urban space, distances, proportions, and spatial relations are deconstructed and altered in perception.
From 1965 onward, Imi Knoebel studied in the class of Joseph Beuys. In this context, art is understood as an open, processual relationship between material, action, and time—an expanded concept of art. Beuys's teaching opens up a cross-media practice that enables Knoebel to use photography as a tool for investigating material, light, and time. In this atmosphere of artistic self-determination, photographic procedures become a natural component of his conceptual approach.
Born in Dessau in 1940, Imi Knoebel began his studies at the Werkkunstschule Darmstadt in 1962. There, photography was established as an autonomous visual practice and embedded in a curriculum shaped by references to Bauhaus traditions as well as material- and practice-oriented teaching approaches. Form, material, and light were reflected upon across media.
Within this context, artist Kilian Breier began teaching photography and animation at the Werkkunstschule Darmstadt in 1961. As a representative of Concrete Photography, a member of the neue gruppe saar, a former assistant to Otto Steinert (1955–1958), and a contributor to ZERO 3 (1960), Breier introduced photographic discourses to the school—an environment in which Knoebel was likewise situated. Breier's work is shaped by sustained engagements with light, material, seriality, and formal reduction.
In 1964, Imi Knoebel continued his studies at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He initially enrolled in the class for Applied Graphics under Walter Breker before transferring to the class of Joseph Beuys. Photography was also present at the Academy, where it was used in diverse artistic contexts and experimental modes of practice.
A darkroom established by Hilla Becher during her studies in Walter Breker’s graphics class provided the Academy with the technical and spatial infrastructure for photographic work. This infrastructure opened up early practical access to the medium, prior to the formal establishment of photography as an independent class in 1973.
The series Projektion unfolds from the intersection of artistic, institutional, and photographic contexts.
With this exhibition, the DFI e. V. concludes its program at the Eiskellerberg location. The program will continue elsewhere, while the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf assumes use of the space.
Initiated at the invitation of Andreas Gursky and Moritz Wegwerth.
Mit freundlicher Unterstützung:
Kulturamt der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf.