Zilkens' News Blog Archive

A venue for Manifesta, Heilig-Geist in Essen – near Zollverein – has fallen victim to vandals. Photo: Stephan Zilkens

Zilkens' News Blog 23 2026

For our newer readers: you are currently reading the 650th edition of our news blog and Kobel’s Art Week. Twelve and a half years of working together to report on the art market seem a good reason to take a brief look back: what was the world like when we started?The FAZ was still organising an art market symposium in the heart of Berlin, where ... read more

Anas Kahal and Majd Suliman – Artists in Exile with Stephan Zilkens at the exhibition opening in Cologne: Photo by Patric Prager

Zilkens' News Blog 22 2026

Last Wednesday was the big day: the first scholarship holders from Support Artists in Exile Cologne e.V. presented their works in a moving exhibition. Anas Kahal from Damascus has captured his memories of the civil war in Syria in film sequences that bring home the anonymity of the hordes shooting wildly, countered by a poetic work by Majd Suliman from ... read more

Visions in Cologne - idea for the future City Museum; Phot Stephan Zilkens

Zilkens' News Blog 21 2026

It is rather strange when potential Labour candidates for Prime Minister in England rave about winning back the working class for Labour. How am I supposed to win back something that no longer exists? Things are sometimes just as baffling in the German cabinet. Everyone is on first-name terms because that’s just what you do. The former formal title ‘Mr Chancellor’, which reflected the office ... read more

Pussy Riot and Friends: Loud poetry against opening of Russian Pavilion – Venice Biennale 2026 – Photo: Stephan Zilkens

Zilkens' News Blog 20 2026

Bruno Bischofberger, one of the pioneers of Art Basel, passed away on Saturday at the age of 86. He was one of the greats. A friend to many artists, including Schnabel and Warhol, and a pioneer of Basquiat. A passionate and dedicated collector of Swiss art from the last century. Controversial, committed and with a keen eye. In the Alpine region, no reasonably well-preserved and ... read more

KADEWE Berlin part of Gallery Weekend - Photo Stephan Zilkens

Zilkens‘ News Blog 19 2026

The time is almost here: on Wednesday 20 May at 5.00 pm, the exhibition featuring the first grant recipients of ‘Support Artists in Exile Cologne e.V.’ will open at Galerie Minima in Cologne. The artists have each given their body of work its own title: Majd Suliman’s section is called DIY Expression, and Anas Kahal’s is titled SYRIA: IMAGES FROM MEMORY. You are already warmly ... read more

In Memoriam Jenny Falckenberg, Performance Venice Biennale 2015; Photo: Stephan Zilkens

Zilkens' News Blog 18 2026

That would have been something! A weekend without hearing a peep from the land of the former Big Brother and its president – and then a botched attack on a meal with correspondents, leaving you wondering how anyone could check in with a weapon when it was common knowledge that the self-promoter with the simple sentence structure would be there. In every shopping centre in ... read more