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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.

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

Creative dialogue between art and medical history

Fascinating drawings featuring sections of a human skull surrounded visual artist Johannes Weilandt in the studio of the Artists’ and Scholarship House as he explained his plans for his scholarship residency.
As part of this three-month scholarship, which Johannes Weilandt began on 1 October, he wants to take an in-depth look at the medical-historical representation of the human body.
Weilandt’s artistic practice is based on the question of how institutions inscribe themselves into our bodies, represent them, shape them and cause them to disappear. His interest also focuses on the experience of medical institutions from the perspective of patients, a topic that is increasingly being explored by medical history research. The source material from which he conceives his drawings and then develops them in an open process consists primarily of visual artefacts, such as photographs, hand drawings, schematic graphics and animations, which he finds in medical collections and archives.

During his stay at the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House, Weilandt will focus specifically on an anatomical exhibit from the Meckel Collections in Halle (Saale): the ‘Gall’s Skull’. This finely inscribed human skull shows 27 numbered zones marked with character traits or abilities such as belligerence, murderousness, astuteness, thirst for glory or prudence. In the early 19th century, it was believed that different areas of the brain were responsible for different characteristics and abilities and that these were visible in the external shape of the skull. In other words, the shape of the skull allowed conclusions to be drawn about a person’s personality and mental abilities. Despite the scientific refutation of this theory, it had far-reaching implications for police work and psychiatry in the 19th century, as well as for medicine during the Nazi era.

Inspired by his artistic research, Johannes Weilandt will explore the historical significance of the ‘Gall skull’ through drawing, drawing on sketches and notes he made during his time in Halle. The creative process will be subject to continuous reflection, from the choice of format to the drawing techniques used. Weilandt will also document the development of his artistic process in a specially designed work journal, which will accompany him on his journey.

The results of Weilandt’s project will be presented at the end of his residency at the Artist Café on 18 December 2025. You can look forward to a powerful artistic exploration that not only sharpens our view of the past, but also raises current questions about identity and attribution in the field of tension between art and science.

More about Johannes Weilandt
Johannes Weilandt, born in 1991 and raised in Halle (Saale), lives and works as a visual artist in Berlin and Halle Saale. He is a member of BBK-Berlin, VGBildkunst and the International Heiner Müller Society. From 2011 to 2017, he studied Fine Arts | Stage and Costume Design at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin. He also studied drawing and painting in Prof. Mark Lammert’s class at the Berlin University of the Arts during a guest semester in 2015 and drawing, painting and transmedia at the University of Arts in Belgrade in 2016. In 2022, he earned his master’s degree under Prof. Else Gabriel and Prof. Peter Schubert at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin. In 2023, Weilandt collaborated with the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine at the UKE Hamburg as part of his residency scholarship at the Künstlerhaus Lauenburg. In 2024, he conducted research in the Meckel Collections of the Institute for Anatomy and Cell Biology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. He has received several scholarships for his work, including from the Kunstfonds Foundation. His drawings have also been featured in various exhibitions, publications and collections, including together with Elske Rosenfeld at the festival ‘wohn_komplex, Festival zu 60 Jahre Halle Neustadt’ in 2024, which is sponsored by the Saxony-Anhalt Art Foundation.
You can find out more about Johannes Weilandt and his works here: https://www.johannesweilandt.de/

@_AMK

Sound & Vision – An evening of sound art

On 18 September 2025, the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel Adult Education Centre invited guests to an artists’ café at the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House. The guest was composer CHEN Chengwen, the current scholarship holder.

CHEN Chengwen used his stay in Salzwedel to explore the music of St. Mary’s organ, which can be heard clearly from the artists’ and scholarship holders’ residence. But that wasn’t the only source of inspiration. The city’s tonal diversity inspired him to create artistic transformations that make the atmosphere and history of Salzwedel audible.

Have you ever consciously paid attention to the sounds around you? Even in a closed room, you can hear the ticking of the clock or the noise of traffic outside the window. CHEN Chengwen focuses on these sounds that are often overlooked or considered part of everyday life: since July, he has been working at the Artists’ and Scholarship House, researching the concept of the ‘soundscape’ – the acoustic experience of different spaces. His goal is to discover musicality in the everyday sounds of the Hanseatic city of Salzwedel and transform them into new, contemporary compositions. @_AMK

He presented this implementation to the numerous guests at the Künstlercafé not only acoustically but also visually on a screen.

CHEN Chenwen plays his composition on the piano_@_Bild Verein

General meeting confirmed Mirko Rathke as the new chairman of the association of the artists’ and scholarship holders’ residence

On 1 September 2025, this year’s general meeting of the Association of the Artists’ and Scholars’ House in the Altmark district of Salzwedel took place. Of the 33 members, 16 accepted the invitation from the board. District Administrator Steve Kanitz and several sponsors and supporters of the association were also in attendance.

Vera Wibbeke, the chairwoman of the association, summarised the year 2024 in her report. In a vivid PowerPoint presentation, she introduced the 2024 state scholarship holders and their artistic work. Last year, there were a total of six board meetings and one general meeting.
Vera Wibbeke expressed her sincere thanks to all members, sponsors and supporters of the association, as well as to the board for their voluntary work.
She also highlighted the great work of the district adult education centre, which organises so-called artist cafés four times a year in cooperation with the board, and the Johann Friedrich Danneil Museum, where last year’s scholarship holders can present their works as part of the ‘StipendiatenART’ exhibition.

After the cash audit was also completed without any objections, the old board was granted discharge for the year 2024.

This was followed by board elections. According to the association’s statutes, the board must be re-elected every four years. Karl-Heinz Reck acted as election officer from the association, and the election was conducted by open ballot. Vera Wibbeke and Heidrun Kalmbach stepped down from the old board.
Mirko Rathke was confirmed as the new chairperson of the association, with Ines Kahrens as his deputy. Inka Ludwig ran for re-election as secretary and was confirmed. Birgit Eurich is the new treasurer, and Cornelia Blödow, Kathrin Stade and Joachim Mikolajczyk serve as assessors on the executive committee.
The board now consists of seven members.
The extended board also includes the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, represented by Ms Simone Franz, and the Hanseatic City of Salzwedel, represented by Ms Antje Schwesig, as ‘born members’.

The former chairwoman concluded by looking ahead to the 30th anniversary of the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House Association, which will be celebrated in 2027. Planning for this event will therefore be driven forward by the new chairperson this year and next.

All members of the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House Association would like to once again express their sincere gratitude to Sparkasse Altmark West and the Altmarkkreis Salzwedel passenger transport company for their many years of financial support.

Here on the website, there is also membership applications, because anyone who would like to support the Artists’ and Scholarship Holders’ House Association is very welcome!

Foto: @_AMK