with the artists Margit Czenki / Christoph Schäfer, Schirin Kretschmann, Harald F. Müller, Gabriela Oberkofler, Antje Schiffers, Tilo Schulz and Andrea Wolfensberger as well as Christian Jacobs (cultural consultant) and André Pradtke (entrepreneur); the hosts are Jörg van den Berg (director), Fritz Emslander (curator), Lucia Riemenschnitter (art mediator) and Thekla Zell (curator)

In spring 2022, the Morsbroich Museum invited seven artists and two other thinkers to accompany the transformation process that has begun in Morsbroich over several years. The museum sees itself as the heart of the entire, unique ensemble of the castle, coach houses, inner garden and outer park with its two 'neighbors', the Leverkusen Art Association and the Morsbroich Fruit Estate.

The Morsbroich workshop wants to lead the entire complex into a future under the premise of art. In recent decades, contemporary art has crossed every boundary and has become involved in every conceivable segment of our society. The Morsbroich Museum sees this as an opportunity to develop such a complex ensemble as Morsbroich entirely from the perspective of art. The aim is to realize Morsbroich as a total work of art and thus offer the city of Leverkusen, its citizens and guests a new dimension of a public space for thought and discourse, a place of rest and a playground for togetherness.

The Morsbroich Workshop 2022-26 also responds conceptually to what we see as one of the major deficits of the current museum system. The constant pressure inherent in the art operating system to always have to offer something new in ever larger and faster sequences means that the times of collaboration with artists for the museum institution are becoming ever shorter. With the Morsbroich workshop, we would like to gain a new slowness for ourselves, the artists and our museum guests, time for extended collaboration, in order to build a new quality of cooperation between the institution and the artists.

An important impulse for this way of thinking was provided by Matthias Haldemann, the long-time director of the Kunsthaus Zug, who began his concept in the 1990s with the title Project Collection: "Project Collection is the name for multi-year collaborations with international artists. The concept emerged from a critical examination of today's collection problems in the field of contemporary art (short-livedness, explosion in production, lack of space). It is based on the idea that reference to place and continuity as well as the possibility of in-depth engagement are primary aspects of collecting and not material possession. Slowness is sought and transience is accepted. The Kunsthaus does not see itself as a supposedly neutral institution, but as an active partner of the artists."