Detektive

Detectives
Reading and concert
After dropping out of art history studies, Dirk von Lowtzow landed in Hamburg in 1993 and saw for the first time at the Hamburger Kunstverein what was then, as now, referred to as "contemporary art" and did not exist in Freiburg. The exhibition was called "Backstage" ("I only knew him from punk clubs") and was intended as a peek behind the scenes and at the same time as an overview of "institutional critique" and "context art". Many of the positions on show corresponded with Tocotronic's practice, which had just begun. Five years later in Cologne, he met Isabelle Graw, author and editor of "Texte
zur Kunst" and was hired as an art critic for the magazine after an evening at the bar. This volume of essays brings together (almost) all the articles that Dirk von Lowtzow wrote for "Texte zur Kunst" and for catalogs between 1999 and 2019 - in chronological order. It begins with a visit to Sigmar Polke's exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle and ends with some (unanswered) questions for the writer Leïla Slimani. And there's a mini-drama to boot! Dirk von Lowtzow will create an entertaining and sometimes very funny evening with old and new texts on art and sing the matching songs from three decades of Tocotronic.
"Detektive" will be published by Verbrecher Verlag in August 2026. Dirk von Lowtzow, born in Offenburg/Baden in 1971, founded the rock band Tocotronic in Hamburg in 1993 together with Arne Zank and Jan Müller. Many Tocotronic albums have been released since 1995, most recently the album "Golden Years" in 2025.