Active participation is a top priority at the DA, Kunsthaus. Projects create a dialog between artists and visitors and encourage active participation and co-creation. Klostergrün is a large open-air exhibition with works spanning several decades.
The former Cistercian convent of Gravenhorst is now an imposing monument, a cultural tourist attraction and a lively cultural venue: where convent nuns once worked, dined and slept for over 600 years, exhibitions, sound and light art, concerts and workshops are now reviving the impressive rooms and green spaces in northern Münsterland.
Artists of international renown present their art, as do painters, photographers and sculptors from the region. Every year, selected scholarship holders of the "KunstKommunikation" project scholarship carry out their projects, which are both socially relevant and community-oriented. Sometimes a temporary sculpture made of reinforced concrete is created in the monastery green, which guests help to shape over several months. Sometimes an artist arranges a wall and room installation made of plastic flowers, which she forms from garbage together with helpers.
Conceptual name "Think-Paint-Atelier"
Visitors quickly notice that the theme of participation is very important on the site, which is also reflected in the name of the special facility, which is now known as "DA, Kunsthaus Kloster Gravenhorst". The "DA" stands for the conceptual name "Denk-Mal-Atelier" (Think-Paint-Atelier) and points to the transfer of knowledge, the active engagement with art and the ongoing workshop character of the institution.
As you walk through the beautiful monastery garden, you will notice plenty of traces of previous projects and events that are well worth investigating. For example, the walk-in artwork "Weidenreuse", which consists of 25 willow arches and was created in 2004 by over 100 volunteers for the opening of the DA Kunsthaus, is ideal for a photo.
The "Dialogue Fountain" by artist Gilbert Geister, along with other installations, encourages free design. With a tug on a steel cable, visitors conjure up fleeting sculptures of water in the air. A catapult mechanism makes this possible above one of the historic moats.
Every year, new permanent and temporary installations are added to the large open-air exhibition. When the Gravenhorster SAISONALE* takes place, art even makes a seasonal and topical appearance.
