Rediscovering a cultural institution
Since autumn 2024, the renowned Overbeck-Gesellschaft at Königstraße 11 in Lübeck has had a new director in Paula Kommoss . With her arrival, the cultural life of our city has regained a real treasure. I have been meeting for the Lübeck ZWISCHENZEILEN with Paula Kommoss to find out more about her, to research background information on the current exhibition“Half Frame” and to take a look at her plans for the further development of the Overbeck-Gesellschaft, which is dedicated to the “cultivation of the visual arts, in particular through the organization of art exhibitions”.
The Overbeck Pavilion
The elegant white building, in which the work of the Overbeck-Gesellschaft has been visible since 1930, is located somewhat out of the way in the garden of the Behnhaus/Drägerhaus Museum. For me, this location is part of the magic of this cultural institution. Because the pavilion surprises with its bright white and clear design language.
The “Neues Bauen” style was a modernist trend. The Overbeck-Pavilion, designed by Lübeck architect Wilhelm Bräck, is one of the few examples of this avant-garde style in Schleswig-Holstein. Its effect changes with every season, always attracting attention. I like the simplicity of the architecture in the geometrically laid out garden, which is restrained and gives the respective exhibition the space it deserves. Approaches that the new museum director makes use of. Because what is important to her is what the respective location can offer – and what can be developed from it.
Paula Kommoss – A new perspective
Paula not only brings international experience to the table, but above all a palpable desire for change. Stops in Kassel, Venice, Frankfurt, most recently the Biennale in Freiburg: her CV reads like a city map of artistic awakening. And now Lübeck.
In conversation, I experience a woman with a clear attitude who is bursting with ideas. Listening to her is a real pleasure.
She wants to open the doors of the Overbeck-Gesellschaft even wider – to new voices, younger visitors, different perspectives. She does not think of art as a closed narrative, but as an open conversation. Her previous exhibitions have revolved around social issues, allowing music and language, sound and silence to enter into a dialog with one another.
What is created under her leadership is not a “programme”, but a process. She embeds local, interdisciplinary themes in an international context. With her sparkling spirit, Paula is a real gift for Lübeck’s cultural scene.
Daphne – a figure of transformation
The sculpture of Daphne plays a key role in the first exhibition under Paula’s direction. Daphne stands in the courtyard in front of the entrance to the Overbeck-Pavilion. Her eyes are closed, as if she has withdrawn from the world. Her body rests quietly within itself. The portrayal is reserved, almost shy. And yet Daphne is there. Completely there. A figure in the moment of transformation – captured in bronze.
I have always been fascinated by this elegant sculpture. I photographed it every time I visited and felt the impressive presence of Daphne. It is a work by the Berlin artist Reneé Sintenis. The then Lübeck museum director Carl Georg Heise, a central figure in Lübeck’s post-war art scene, brought it into the collection. Heise, a quiet enabler of modern art, was convinced:
Art is allowed to challenge. It can ask questions without providing answers.
In Sintenis, he found an artist who did just that. Her Daphne shows no dramatic gesture, but a quiet resistance. No sacrifice, no pathos – but a pause.
Daphne – the nymph from Greek mythology who eluded Apollo’s grasp by transforming herself into a laurel tree – does not stand for drama, but for stillness. For the moment in which a retreat becomes a form of resistance. And perhaps also for what art is capable of: making the invisible tangible.
Half Frame – views in transition
The current exhibition impressively sets these thoughts in motion. It was designed by the Cypriot artist Maria Toumazou. There is a camera obscura in the Overbeck-Pavilion. The outside light falls into the interior through a tiny opening – the image of Daphne outside the building is slowly drawn into the interior over the course of eight hours. And then the motif appears: everything is upside down. Everything is there. And at the same time intangible.
The exhibition title Half Frame refers to a photographic process of the 1950s and 60s: a film format that made it possible to depict twice as many motifs on one strip – condensed time, fragmented perception. Paula Kommoss is interested in precisely this contradiction: the desire to capture the moment, even though it has already passed. And the question of how we still encounter the image today. What the increasing speed of visual impulses, to which we are consciously or unconsciously exposed on a daily basis, triggers in us.
Perhaps it is this quiet harmony between the sculpture in the courtyard and the exhibition inside that makes the focus of the artistic work so special: there is no exhibition here, there is a search. And sometimes a single moment is enough – to see everything differently.
This is how it continues
The Overbeck-Pavilion is open Thursdays to Sundays from 12:00 – 17:00. Half Frame will run there until April 27, 2025, followed by a second exhibition from May 17, 2025: Paula Kommoss has invited Danish artist Asta Lynge, a representative of Ultra Contemporary Art, to stage the pavilion and bring the space to life from her own personal perspective.
A third exhibition will follow from July 26, about which Paula Kommoss has only told me that the theme of “listening” will play a central role. Whenever you come by again or for the first time: the shimmering golden Daphne will be there in front of the entrance. With her silent presence, she reminds us that change doesn’t have to be loud.
By the way: our Lübeck ZWISCHENTÖNE podcast team also got to know Paula Kommoss. Listen to the episode (in German) here.
