Thinking Together
Recorded live on February 7, 2026 – This episode is in German.
In this live conversation, I speak with Nicolaus Schafhausen — gallerist, curator, author, and exhibition maker. Nicolaus began his career as an artist before consciously stepping into other roles within the art world, shaping institutions and discourses from multiple perspectives.
Over the decades, he has co-founded the gallery Lukas & Hoffmann in Berlin and Cologne and has held numerous influential positions: Artistic Leader at Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Director of Frankfurter Kunstverein, Founding Director of the European Kunsthalle in Cologne, Director of Witte de With in Rotterdam, Strategic Director of the Shorefast Foundation on Fogo Island, Commissioner of the German Pavilion at the 52nd and 53rd Venice Biennales, Director of Kunsthalle Wien — and most recently, Founder and Director of KIN, a gallery for contemporary art in Brussels.
We begin briefly with the question of how Nicolaus carved out his own path in the arts — and then move directly into the present moment and its challenges.
Who buys art today — and why?
How has that changed in recent years?
What shifts do we see coming?
And how do we, as gallerists, respond?
But also: To whom do we sell? Is there something like a moral radar when placing artworks? What responsibility do we carry toward artists, collectors, institutions — and toward one another?
We speak openly about relationships: between artists and galleries, between money and values, between conviction and compromise. There are more questions than answers — but we both agree that thinking together, publicly and honestly, is a powerful place to begin.
After the book recommendation, there is a bonus Q&A with the audience.
Book Pick
I recommend the Gereon Rath series by Volker Kutscher, the literary basis for the acclaimed TV series Babylon Berlin.
Published in Germany by Kiepenheuer & Witsch, in English by Sandstone Press, and as an audiobook by OsterwoldAudio.
The novels paint a vivid portrait of Berlin in the late 1920s and early 1930s — a city vibrating with jazz, avant-garde art, nightlife, and radical political energy during the Weimar Republic. What begins as a time of cultural freedom and experimentation gradually gives way to fear, propaganda, and conformity. Art and the press come under pressure — and with them, free thought itself.
Kutscher shows how quickly an open society can erode when extremism, economic instability, and disinformation converge. It is a powerful reminder that art and culture are never neutral — they are deeply tied to freedom, and therefore often the first to be threatened.
https://kinbrussels.com/
https://nicolausschafhausen.com/
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaus_Schafhausen
https://van-horn.net/podcast/
Ireland