The first exhibition space is painted black, with only a few lights focused on the large-scale installation A Ship So Big, A Bridge Cringes (2007). The composition consists of canvases that are mounted back to back and placed in a slightly raised tank of water so that they appear to be floating. This results in an expansive sculpture that can be viewed from all sides. A length of white string runs across the four canvases, connecting them to each other. The water reflects the dark, virtually monochrome canvases and reinforces the impression that they are extending out into the room. The surfaces are adorned with wool and small hand-crafted objects made from clay and wood. They refer to domestic space or arts and craft traditions, demonstrating the artists’ preference for incorporating found objects and textiles into their works. As a whole, the installation shifts between the expansive nature of the reflections and the confined narrowness of the room with its light-absorbing black walls. The artists have transformed a painting into an installation, creating a heightened, otherworldly atmosphere that is augmented by the unusual minimal lighting and monumental proportions of the work.

A small wall demarcates a second room, also painted black, in which the viewer encounters Lob der Langeweile (2008). The installation is comprised of a number of white neons and a cord system, made from a single line, that is mounted on the walls. The composition can be understood as a drawing that explores the spatial dimensions of the room.

Since emerging in the cutting-edge art scene in 1980s Cologne, Rosemarie Trockel has long been considered one of the most versatile and pioneering female artists in contemporary art. Characteristic of Trockel's practice is her cyclical approach to themes and motifs that she repeats across various media, formats and combinations. Gender issues, the hierarchy between craft and fine art and the nature of artistic production feature heavily in her oeuvre, which includes collages, knitted works, sculptures, photography, installations and film. Her practice often investigates social roles, gender-specific behaviour and cultural codes. Trockel combines these concerns with discourses from philosophy, theology, and the natural sciences.

Thea Djordjadze creates sculptures and installations that are always concerned with the dimensions of space and time. The materials she uses range from the mundane to the elegant, from rigid timber and steel structures to amorphous plaster, textiles and foam parts. Djordjadze frequently juxtaposes objects that reveal traces and impressions of the human body with industrially made materials. These arrangements are created in response to an exhibition space and are typified by an incomplete and fragmentary character that oscillates between open spatial designs and dense performative gestures. Djordjadze addresses themes that range from architecture and literature, to motifs from popular culture and the natural sciences. Her work seeks to emphasize the contrasts between mental and physical interior spaces, between intimacy and public presence.