Fons Hickmann at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus: Poster Art as Visual Experiment
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Fons Hickmann: Three Decades of Poster Art Between Typography and Social Intervention
At the Brandenburg State Museum of Modern Art – Diesel Power Plant Cottbus, the exhibition Fons Hickmann. Posters of Today and Before offers a concentrated look at the internationally awarded poster creations of the German graphic designer, typographer, and professor Fons Hickmann. The exhibition combines visual precision, experimental design, and cultural reflection into an impressive artistic experience.
The Poster as a Space for Thought
Fons Hickmann, born in Hamm in 1966, founded the design studio Fons Hickmann m23 in Berlin in 2001. His work spans communications design, painting, photography, typography, and media installation. At the center is the poster as a publicly effective medium: It informs, irritates, condenses societal questions, and transforms everyday urban spaces into visual resonance spaces.
Typography with Tension and Rhythm
The works on display are often created in series for cultural clients. Typographical elements, photographic fragments, strong contrasts, and deliberately placed breaks develop their own visual language. Type appears not only as information but as form, sound, and movement. In observing the works, it becomes visible how Hickmann connects text, surface, color, and material into complex visual compositions.
From Commissioned Work to Paper Intervention
The exhibition spans three decades and brings together posters from different phases of creation. In addition to works for theaters, museums, and cultural institutions, the BLMK presents self- and media-reflective designs as well as self-initiated posters that address socio-political themes. This makes the poster an experiential contemporary art form that mediates between applied graphics, visual culture, and political statements.
An Internationally Awarded Designer
Hickmann studied photography and communications design in Düsseldorf as well as aesthetics and media theory in Wuppertal. Since 2007, he has been teaching at the University of the Arts Berlin. His studio has received, among others, the Golden Bee Award, an iF Award in Gold, LeadAwards, as well as awards from the Art Directors Club and the Joseph Binder Award. In 2012, the Triennale Trnava honored his oeuvre with the Master's Eye Award.
Exhibition Atmosphere in the Diesel Power Plant
In the industrially shaped ambiance of the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus, historical architecture and contemporary design meet. The presentation invites visitors to attentively perceive the rhythm of forms and letters, the materiality of paper, and the spatial effect of serial poster sequences. This creates an aesthetic experience that connects art historical classification with immediate visual fascination.
Conclusion: Experience Poster Art Live
The exhibition presents Fons Hickmann as a designer who understands communication not as a neutral transmission, but as an experimental and social process. Visitors can expect a multifaceted exploration of works between typography, graphic design, visual culture, and political intervention. Those wanting to trace the development of contemporary posters and experience design as both a sensual and intellectual experience should definitely visit this exhibition at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus live.
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- Website: https://fonshickmann.com/
