Julia Stoschek concludes: The most important collector of time-based art is leaving Berlin

The video works by internationally renowned artists, for which the Julia Stoschek Foundation stands, will be shown elsewhere in the future: as “temporary formats,” according to the announcement, with a focus on domestic and international.

The Düsseldorf headquarters remains

However, Stoschek will retain its premises in Düsseldorf, which have existed since 2007. They will reopen in spring 2027 after extensive renovation.

For Berlin it is a farewell with an announcement: six years ago, when the Federal Real Estate Agency (BlmA) wanted to refurbish the prefabricated building from GDR times, Stoschek threatened to move away. She herself had already had the building extensively renovated; the federal agency was only planning to make changes to the facade, combined with a rent increase. A sale to the collector was out of the question for the Federal Agency, and it did not offer a replacement at the time.

Stoschek was dealt with harshly

In addition, Stoschek was dealt with harshly. Numerous comments on the reporting at the time said, among other things, that a rich heiress didn’t need any subsidies, could afford a higher rent and was only interested in increasing the value of her collection anyway.

What a misunderstanding. Julia Stoschek was financially involved in Berlin. Your large-scale project with workshops, lectures, loan options for institutional exhibitions and the preservation of the fragile material, some of which are old videos from the 1960s, consumes a large annual budget.

It was fortunate for Berlin when the collector decided on another location. At the time, not least for personal reasons: she has a child with Springer boss Mathias Döpfner.

However, her commitment was always global and Stoschek traveled a lot. Most recently in Los Angeles, the exhibition “What a Wonderful World: An Audivisual Poem” opened at the Variety Arts Theater. A project in which, among others, the former director of the Nationalgalerie, Udo Kittelmann, is involved.

Pop-up initiatives like this will be the focus of the Julia Stoschek Foundation in the future, which has nevertheless continued in Berlin and realized exhibitions of an international standard. “Berlin remains a central point of reference for me – a city to which I feel very connected,” she writes in her announcement. There will also be appearances of the collection in Berlin in the future. But the great love from the beginning seems to be over.