Musical contrasts & convergence
The talented composer Yasuko Yamaguchi began her residency at the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel Artists’ and Fellows’ House in early April. At a press conference, she offered an exclusive first glimpse into her exciting plans.
She first came into contact with the Hanseatic city of Salzwedel back in 2016 during her three-month stay at the Künstlerhof Schreyahn in Lower Saxony. Even then, she was captivated by the magic of nature and the enchanting half-timbered houses – so much so that she wanted to return and applied for the residency at the Artists’ and Scholars’ House. Now she is devoting herself to a new, exciting composition project right here.
During her stay in Salzwedel, Yamaguchi plans to compose a piece with the working title “Schattenlicht 3” for accordion and percussion. Inspired by the division between East and West Germany, as well as by the course of the Jeetze and Dumme rivers, which merge into one, she experiments with the musical representation of separation and rapprochement. In this piece, the accordion and percussion are initially set to face each other as independent entities. However, as the piece progresses, the two draw closer and eventually engage in an intense dialogue.
Yasuko Yamaguchi works in a traditional manner: she begins her compositions with handwritten jottings of ideas and brief notes, initially in written form. These eventually develop into melodies, which she carefully transcribes onto sheet music. “I compose very slowly, which is why I probably won’t be able to present a complete piece of music by the end of my scholarship,” she emphasised, however.
Yasuko Yamaguchi particularly values the peace and quiet that her stay affords her, allowing her to focus entirely on her compositional work – an opportunity that is otherwise rare due to her private commitments as a piano teacher.
To find inspiration, Yasuko Yamaguchi enjoys going for walks; she loves half-timbered houses, the sound of birdsong and the open countryside. The Altmark offers all of this in abundance and thus possesses great creative potential. “I was fascinated by the crooked half-timbered houses right from the start,” said Yasuko Yamaguchi, adding with a wink: “And I compose quirky, new music. It all fits together nicely.” She is now looking forward to getting to know her surroundings better and drawing inspiration from them.
You can find out what that sounds like at the Artists’ Café on 18 June 2026. So, do make a note of this event in your diary.
More about Yasuko Yamaguchi
Yasuko Yamaguchi was born in Nagasaki, Japan, in 1969. She studied composition at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music under Akira Kitamura, Hideo Kobayashi and Michio Mamiya. She subsequently undertook postgraduate studies at the Robert Schumann University of Music in Düsseldorf under Manfred Trojahn, graduating with a diploma in 2000.
Yasuko Yamaguchi has received numerous awards, including the City of Düsseldorf’s Music Promotion Prize (2005) and various grants, amongst others from the Künstlerhof Schreyahn (2016), the Federal Minister of State for Culture at the German Study Centre in Venice (2018), the Musikfonds Berlin and the German Music Council. Most recently, she lived as a scholarship holder in Bellwald, Switzerland, in the summer of 2022, and has been invited to spend three months at the Fondazione Casa Atelier Bedigliora in Switzerland in the summer of 2027.
Her major commissions include works for Music From Japan (New York), the Kunststiftung NRW, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf and the Dr. Karl Emil and Lilli Brügmann Foundation. The orchestral work “Das Stehaufmännchen ist umgefallen” (1999) was nominated for the 10th Akutagawa Composition Prize and has been performed by leading Japanese orchestras such as the Kyoto Symphony Orchestra and the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra.
Yasuko Yamaguchi’s works have been performed worldwide by ensembles such as the E-MEX Ensemble, Studio Musikfabrik, 175 East (New Zealand), the Tokyo Sinfonietta and others. Numerous international festivals, including the ACL Festival in Taiwan, the International Gaudeamus Music Week in the Netherlands, the Munich Biennale and the Music From Japan Festival in New York, have been among her key performance venues.
Yasuko Yamaguchi lives and works as a freelance composer in Düsseldorf.
Further information and audio samples can be found on their website:
www.yasukoyamaguchi.com
(@AMK)
11.03.2026
Artists’ Café with scholarship holder Heekeun Kim on 19 March 2026
On Thursday, 19 March 2026, at 6:30 p.m., the district adult education centre and the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ Association cordially invite you to the Artists’ Café. As part of this event, visual artist Heekeun Kim will present the work she created during her three-month scholarship.
Heekeun Kim was born in Seoul in 1979 and lives in Braunschweig. Her artistic work focuses on exploring the role and influence of architecture and the function of temporary spaces. During her scholarship, she has engaged intensively with architectural interventions – not only through research, but also through lively dialogue with the location itself. Heekeun Kim studied fine art at the Braunschweig University of Art and was a master student of Prof. Thomas Virnich. She has received numerous scholarships and awards, including the annual scholarship from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture (2024) and the working scholarship from the Kunstfonds Bonn Foundation (2023). Her works have been exhibited internationally, including at the Wrong Biennale in Alicante (Spain) (2023/2024) and Documenta 15 in Kassel (2022).
@AMK
All the important details at a glance
Date: Thursday, 19 March 2026
Time: 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Location: Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House | Kleine Predigerstraße 1 | 29410 Hanseatic City of Salzwedel
We look forward to welcoming you to the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House.
31.01.2026
A new chapter in artistic spatial perception
Artists’ and scholarship holders’ residence becomes creative home for Heekeun Kim.
Mirko Rathke, chairman of the Friends of the Artists’ and Scholarship House Association, accompanied by representatives of the Altmark district of Salzwedel and the Hanseatic city of Salzwedel, welcomed the first scholarship holder of the year: Heekeun Kim.
The South Korean artist moved into the scholarship house just a week ago, but she was already able to gather her first impressions of her new surroundings during a guided tour of the city with Ines Kahrens. ‘I really like the architecture of the city, especially the half-timbered houses with their structure, which provide a wonderful basis for my art,’ says Heekeun Kim. Her artistic practice is deeply rooted in her exploration of architecture and temporary spaces. After her first explorations of the Hanseatic city, the town hall tower and the mayor’s courtyard have remained particularly memorable for her.
As part of her scholarship, she wants to develop spatial interventions that explore the interrelationship between body and architecture. Her focus is on the often overlooked ‘interstitial spaces’ – those subtle places that are usually not the centre of our perception, but which have enormous creative potential. In one of her earlier works, for example, she mirrored a wall on the floor one-to-one, transforming the existing vertical structure into a horizontal one. This change created a new spatial dynamic that redefined the perception of the room and the possibilities for movement.
For the next three months, the artist and scholarship house will be her creative home, where she will seek inspiration and develop ideas for her installations. Heekeun Kim emphasised: ‘I want to specialise in an architectural detail of a space in the city and create new perspectives by making changes to the object.’ In doing so, she wants to create not only art to look at, but three-dimensional works to touch and experience. She plans to redesign interesting interiors through fixtures or reduced models and promote dialogue between art and the public. It remains to be seen which materials she will use for her art.
More about Heekeun Kim
Heekeun Kim was born in Seoul in 1979, where she studied photography at the Seoul Institute of the Arts from 1999 to 2001. In 2012, she began a diploma programme under Prof. Björn Dahlem and Prof. Thomas Virnich at the Braunschweig University of Art, which she completed in 2017. In 2018, she was awarded the title of Meisterschülerin under Prof. Thomas Virnich.
Kim’s work has been supported by various grants and scholarships. In 2024, she received both the working grant from the Künstlerhäuser Worpswede and a one-year scholarship from the Lower Saxony Ministry for Science and Culture. These awards followed a notable year in 2023, when she received the NEUSTARTplus grant from the Stiftung Kunstfonds Bonn.Her artistic practice is also fostered through international exhibitions. Notable events include her participation in The Wrong Biennale 2023/2024 in Alicante, Spain, as well as several exhibitions in Germany, including Entäusserungen at the Städtische Galerie Braunschweig (2022) and Whence comes this rush of wings? at Künstlerstätte Stuhr Heiligenrode (2019). @_AMK
20.12.2025
Artists’ café on 18 December with Johannes Weilandt
The Altmarkkreis Salzwedel Adult Education Centre and the Association for the Promotion of the Artists’ and Scholars’ House invited guests to the Artists’ Café on 18 December 2025. Over coffee, tea and light refreshments, current scholarship holder Johannes Weilandt gave interested guests an insight into his art and his life.
Johannes Weilandt lives and works in Berlin and Halle Saale. He studied fine art / stage and costume design at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin and the University of Fine Arts Belgrade. His serial drawings are usually preceded by intensive research in medical history collections and archives. Of central importance to him is the critical examination of the institutionalisation of the human body and the associated questions of representational ethics.
During his scholarship stay at the Artists’ and Scholarship House in Salzwedel, visual artist Johannes Weilandt explored the so-called ‘Gall’s skull theory’ based on his drawings of a skull specimen from the Meckel Collections of the Institute of Anatomy and Cell Biology at MLU Halle-Wittenberg. Named after the German physician Franz Josef Gall (1758-1828), this theory claimed to be able to determine a person’s disposition and character based purely on external characteristics.
For the Artist Café, Weilandt vividly presented and explained the process of his critical, artistic examination of the devastating consequences of this doctrine, which has since been scientifically disproved. Using examples from his earlier and current work, he also spoke about the method and significance of artistic research for his drawing practice. @_AMK
Some interested guests accepted the invitation to the artists’ café.
17.11.2025
Second Sunday in Advent at the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House 2025
Sunday, 7 December, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.
› Exhibitions ‘Illustrations’ – Artist Mirko Rathke
› Drawings ‘Vermessen’ – Scholarship holder Johannes Weilandt
› ‘Film Sequences’ – Artist Café
*2 p.m.:* Guitar duo ‘Norbert Leitel & Jörg Rahmsdorf’
*4 p.m.: * Choir ‘Soundqueens’
with lard and quince sandwiches, gingerbread and mulled wine
Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House | Kleine Prediger Str. 1 | Salzwedel
