FAIR ENOUGH by ART COLOGNE & TEXTE ZUR KUNST

FAIR ENOUGH is a podcast series by ART COLOGNE in collaboration with the journal TEXTE ZUR KUNST. Presented by Micaela Dixon, FAIR ENOUGH brings together artists, curators, writers, and thinkers to reflect on how art and its institutions are responding to the urgencies of our present moment. This season marks the 35th anniversary of TEXTE ZUR KUNST. Here, the journal's motto for the year is taken up, there is no art without criticism. Each episode returns to a past issue of the journal to revisit the debates it sparked and to consider how those questions continue to shape the cultural and political landscape today. What made Cologne one of Europe’s most magnetic art cities — and what remains of that energy today? Recorded live at ART COLOGNE 2025, this panel brings together leading voices who shaped and chronicled that era and continue to define the field today: Isabelle Graw, Diedrich Diederichsen, Andrea Fraser, Christian Nagel, and Monika Sprüth, moderated by Hannes Loichinger. The conversation revisits the city’s rise as a cultural powerhouse in the 1990s — a scene marked by experimentation, discourse, and bold gallery movements — and reflects on how those foundations reverberate in the present. How has the ecosystem of artists, collectors, and institutions shifted since then? What does Cologne’s story reveal about the evolution of European art hubs — and about the forces that sustain them? A vivid dialogue on memory, transformation, and the pulse of a city that continues to reinvent itself. FAIR ENOUGH is a podcast by ART COLOGNE in collaboration with TEXTE ZUR KUNST, bringing together artists, curators, writers, and thinkers to examine how art responds to the urgencies of our time. Season 1 marks TEXTE ZUR KUNST’s 35th anniversary with the theme: There Is No Art Without Criticism.

FAIR ENOUGH is a podcast series by ART COLOGNE in collaboration with the journal TEXTE ZUR KUNST. Presented by Micaela Dixon, FAIR ENOUGH brings together artists, curators, writers, and thinkers to reflect on how art and its institutions are responding to the urgencies of our present moment. This season marks the 35th anniversary of TEXTE ZUR KUNST. Here, the journal's motto for the year is taken up, there is no art without criticism. Each episode returns to a past issue of the journal to revisit the debates it sparked and to consider how those questions continue to shape the cultural and political landscape today. What makes a good gallerist? Vision, loyalty, risk — or something else entirely? In this eighth episode, Micaela Dixon speaks with Daniel Hug, Director of ART COLOGNE and board member of the Moholy-Nagy Foundation, about the enduring “myth” of the good gallerist — and what it reveals about the shifting ethics, ambitions, and responsibilities of the art world. Drawing on his own path from gallerist to fair director, Hug reflects on the gallery as a fragile ecosystem — part sanctuary, part stage — and on how its moral and cultural purpose has evolved in an era of globalisation, speculation, and speed. And as the conversation unfolds, Cologne itself comes into focus: an art city undergoing renewal, where new energy and vision are transforming both the local and international landscape. With his signature mix of candour and insight, Hug asks: what does it mean today to believe in artists, in art, and in the work of shaping context? “The myth of the good gallerist is powerful because it speaks to belief — belief in art, in artists, and in what art can still do.” — Daniel Hug FAIR ENOUGH is a podcast by ART COLOGNE in collaboration with TEXTE ZUR KUNST, bringing together artists, curators, writers, and thinkers to examine how art responds to the urgencies of our time. Season 1 marks TEXTE ZUR KUNST’s 35th anniversary with the theme: There Is No Art Without Criticism.

FAIR ENOUGH is a podcast series by ART COLOGNE in collaboration with the journal TEXTE ZUR KUNST. Presented by Micaela Dixon, FAIR ENOUGH brings together artists, curators, writers, and thinkers to reflect on how art and its institutions are responding to the urgencies of our present moment. This season marks the 35th anniversary of TEXTE ZUR KUNST. Here, the journal's motto for the year is taken up, there is no art without criticism. Each episode returns to a past issue of the journal to revisit the debates it sparked and to consider how those questions continue to shape the cultural and political landscape today. Tom McDonough: On the Politics of the Image In this episode, art historian and critic Tom McDonough (Binghamton University / Texte zur Kunst contributing editor) joins Micaela Dixon to discuss the politics of the image — and the legacies of critical theory in an era of visual overproduction. Together, they explore how artistic and journalistic practices have absorbed and transformed concepts from thinkers such as Walter Benjamin and Guy Debord, and what remains of the avant-garde’s visual strategies today. The conversation also reflects on McDonough’s long engagement with institutional critique, the Situationist International, and the ways in which contemporary art continues to negotiate the space between aesthetics, activism, and spectacle. A dense yet lucid exchange on what images do — how they act, circulate, and shape our understanding of the world. FAIR ENOUGH is a podcast by ART COLOGNE in collaboration with TEXTE ZUR KUNST, bringing together artists, curators, writers, and thinkers to examine how art responds to the urgencies of our time. Season 1 marks TEXTE ZUR KUNST’s 35th anniversary with the theme: There Is No Art Without Criticism.

FAIR ENOUGH is a podcast series by ART COLOGNE in collaboration with the journal TEXTE ZUR KUNST. Presented by Micaela Dixon, FAIR ENOUGH brings together artists, curators, writers, and thinkers to reflect on how art and its institutions are responding to the urgencies of our present moment. This season marks the 35th anniversary of TEXTE ZUR KUNST. Here, the journal's motto for the year is taken up, there is no art without criticism. Each episode returns to a past issue of the journal to revisit the debates it sparked and to consider how those questions continue to shape the cultural and political landscape today. In this sixth episode, Micaela Dixon speaks with curator and writer Alicja Melzacka about the intersections between poetry and exhibition-making. Together, they explore how rhythm, language, and emotional charge can shape the experience of art — and how poetic thinking can expand the curatorial field. Melzacka reflects on her recent projects, the influence of literature on her approach to exhibitions, and the challenge of making the ephemeral legible within institutional contexts. The conversation moves between the page and the gallery, between words and images, tracing the quiet power of poetry in shaping how we see and feel. FAIR ENOUGH is a podcast by ART COLOGNE in collaboration with TEXTE ZUR KUNST, bringing together artists, curators, writers, and thinkers to examine how art responds to the urgencies of our time. Season 1 marks TEXTE ZUR KUNST’s 35th anniversary with the theme: There Is No Art Without Criticism.