Fons Hickmann at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus: Experience Three Decades of Poster Art
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Fons Hickmann: Poster Art as a Visual Thought Model
The Brandenburg State Museum for Modern Art presents Fons Hickmann. Posters of Today and Before, a concentrated solo exhibition spanning three decades of internationally award-winning poster creation. On October 14, 2026, a visual thinking space between typography, communication design, and social reflection opens at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus.
The Poster as Aesthetic Experience
Fons Hickmann, born in Hamm in 1966, founded the design studio Fons Hickmann m23 in Berlin in 2001. His design combines complex communication systems with book, magazine, and poster design. At the center is an experimental attitude that understands each project as an independent investigation of image, text, rhythm, and meaning.
The exhibition spans more than three decades. Included are posters that were often created in series for cultural clients, as well as self- and media-reflective works and self-initiated paper interventions. The poster does not appear merely as a carrier of information but as an independent art form, cultural memory, and social thinking space.
Typography, Color, and Visual Condensation
In the work examination, the precisely set typography, contrasting color areas, and the tension between legibility and visual irritation become apparent. Text becomes form, surface becomes argumentation, and the individual character becomes an impulse for a further aesthetic experience. The atmosphere of the exhibition invites one to grasp design both sensually and analytically.
Hickmann's works move between communication design, graphic design, photography, and media thinking. Their impact arises from condensation: A poster encapsulates cultural content, political questions, and emotional resonances in a limited format. This makes visible how design directs perception and shapes public communication.
An Internationally Awarded Designer
The studio Fons Hickmann m23 ranks among the most awarded design studios of the present day. Hickmann has received awards from the Type Directors Club New York, the Golden Bee in Moscow, Graphis, ADC, and the Joseph Binder Award, among others. As a professor at the University of the Arts Berlin, he combines professional design with cultural education and training young designers.
The Brandenburg State Museum for Modern Art has been collecting Hickmann's works for some time. A comprehensive donation has expanded this collection and forms the basis for a meaningful encounter with his poster work. The curation makes it clear how visual language, societal themes, and media conditions have changed over the decades.
Art Experience at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus
The exhibition will be on display from October 3 to December 6, 2026, at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The regular admission fee is 4 Euros, reduced 3 Euros. Visitors up to 18 years have free admission; a combination ticket for all exhibitions at the location costs 6 Euros.
Fons Hickmann. Posters of Today and Before connects art-historical classification with immediate work examination. Visitors can expect an art experience full of typographic precision, visual energy, and social resonance. Anyone wishing to experience the aesthetic power of the poster live and discover communication design as an independent cultural expression should definitely visit this exhibition at the Diesel Power Plant Cottbus.
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- Website: https://fonshickmann.com/
