Tata Ronkholz: Shaped World. A retrospective

The first comprehensive retrospective of Tata Ronkholz (1940–1997) sheds light on the work of an artist whose photographic language is characterized by quiet, clear-sighted precision. A former student in Bernd Becher's class at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Ronkholz focused her attention on seemingly unremarkable everyday locations such as small corner stores, kiosks, and shops in the Rhineland and Ruhr region. Her works from 1977 place these functional spaces at the forefront, turning them into eloquent testimonies of a changing everyday culture. But Ronkholz's gaze extended even further: her photographs of industrial gates or the joint documentation of Düsseldorf's Rhine harbor with Thomas Struth add a deeper layer to her work, reflecting social and urban transformation processes. The exhibition is complemented by surprising insights into her early product-design-oriented projects as well as photographs of architectural forms in Italy. This retrospective honors Ronkholz as a voice that condenses the interplay of design, culture, and urban space from a perspective that remains relevant to this day.