Zilkens'
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Zilkens' News Blog 52 2025

The fourth Sunday of Advent is over, and Christmas Eve is just three days away. The world around us has not become a better place this year. Putin continues to twist the truth when he claims that Ukraine started the war, drones continue to fly towards civilian targets, and people are freezing in the ruins that Russian henchmen have left them to live in. Negotiations with a war criminal? Who negotiated with Hitler after the start of the Second World War? Morality? Meaningful guidelines? In a world that is increasingly focused on short-term effects and further hasty consumption? The churches have no chance in the midst of all this unless people develop a longing for peaceful meaning. Facebook and Co. are creating the opposite. The reels you see (monster waves devastating coastlines, avalanches causing deer to flee to balconies, moose trampling through houses, etc.) are described as true, yet they are nothing more than fake. They are just so well done that you are briefly inclined to take them as truth. With the same perfection, statements by politicians are twisted to create moods that are neither Christmassy nor constructive. And the Christmas story is being used less and less to fuel consumerism; its substantial meaning is no longer present for so many people that Christmas could actually be abolished as a holiday. But this is likely to meet with resistance from trade unions and tourism businesses.

The John F Kennedy Center for Performing Arts is now being renamed and will have Donald Trump as an additional namesake. But that's not all. The mission statement has been changed, and Kennedy would probably turn in his grave, because a cosmopolitan institution that strove for the best arts from around the world, taking into account the greatest diversity and achievement, is becoming an institution that ‘To fulfil its role as the nation's cultural centre, it presents world-class art by artists who shape our culture today and offers outstanding opportunities for arts education nationwide.’ The tone is clearly different, more nationalistic, more limited – but definitely MAGA. Gaga! Trump and art at a high level is a contradiction in terms.

Christmas as a festival of peace and reconciliation? Not for Germany's mainstream journalists of all genders – it doesn't really matter what the current German government does – the Chancellor always gets a roasting. The fact that the world, especially in a democracy, consists of compromises is completely forgotten. It's normal in life to demand more than you get in the end – but in view of the assembled public broadcasting representatives, with or without a migrant background, it's always a sign of defeat. With so much whining, you won't get the country back on its feet! 50% of the economy is psychology – Ludwig Erhard already knew that, and if the press doesn't realise this, it will go on unemployment. Reporting will then be taken over by the uncontrollable anti-social media. Cheers.

There is positive news from Austria, where the press is running the headline ‘Austria's economy leaves the longest recession behind’ just in time for Christmas. The front page reports on greedy politicians from all parties who are enjoying double pensions from different positions, costing the state EUR 40 million a year. But, to paraphrase Qualtinger: ‘It's not the first time people have voted.’

Our association, Support Artists in Exile Cologne e.V., can finally advertise for scholarship holders, who will each receive a studio for three months with the task of putting on an exhibition of their works. You can reach us here if you would like to find out more. The image on the page is AI-generated and is intended to represent the diversity and cosmopolitanism of Cologne. It is by no means a prejudice against the artistic level, which will take some time with ChatGPT.

Allow us to look back a little, because in 2025 we lost a number of personalities who influenced art, commerce and their history. We remember, among others, Otmar Neher, Edwin Vömel, Franz Swetec, Anita Becker and Ernst Hilger as gallery owners, Frank Gehry the architect, Koyo Kouoh, who was to curate the exhibition at the upcoming Venice Biennale, Allen Rosenbaum from the Princeton University Art Museum, Sylvain Amic from the Musée d'Orsay, William H. Luers from the Metropolitan, Joel Shapiro, Hubert Schmalix and, last but not least, Günther Uecker, whose spirit of art has always enabled a path of freedom beyond the boundaries of the ordinary.

We wish you a merry and peaceful Christmas and time to devote to Kobel's half-year review.

The team at Zilkens Fine Art Insurance Broker GmbH in Solothurn and Cologne