The theme of habitation (Wohnen) is a more topical than ever. How and where we live influence our sense of well-being and shape our behaviour and our identity. Since time immemorial, artists and architects have captured their initial ideas of a future architecture in drawings. Architectural drawings from past eras, however, are not only a means of generating ideas or a medium for documenting building projects. As “catchment organs of internal and external life” (Aby Warburg) they also provide information on the attitude of the architect and on the spirit of the time. Adopting this cultural-scientific approach, the Kunsthalle Tübingen is focussing on the artistic architectural drawing as an art form of the past one hundred years.

The life and work of Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) were greatly influenced by his personal experience of the Second World War. In his role as artist-shaman during the post-war period Beuys not only radically expanded the understanding of art in the direction of a socio-theoretical concept, but, like a therapist, also tried to awaken forgotten ways of perceiving and sensing, and to create an awareness of a cosmic bond through his works and actions.