What began with the purchase of a spray-painted tie by Katharina Grosse from his first salary marks an intersection between a municipal administrative job and a deep passion for collecting that has endured for over a decade. The collection of Lukas Jakob reflects a generation grappling with digital transformation, political uncertainty, and shifting cultural narratives. It brings together artistic positions that negotiate questions of identity, vulnerability, and post-heroic perspectives, creating a space of resonance where individual experiences intersect with broader societal developments.

Located in the heart of the Black Forest near Freiburg im Breisgau, the collection currently comprises around 45 positions across approximately 100 works and continues to grow through new acquisitions. Situated at the intersection of painting, sculpture, photography, installation, and media art, the Jakob Collection explores contemporary artistic practices on both a regional and international level. A particular focus lies on young, emerging artists from the tri-border region of Germany, France, and Switzerland, including Natacha Donzé, Jasmine Gregory, Rindon Johnson, Julian-Jakob Kneer, Thomas Liu Le Lann, Gabriella Torres-Ferrer, and Jaime Welsh.

In terms of content, the collection primarily concentrates on painting, installation, and media art since the 2000s. At its core are works that examine the conditions of acting, feeling, and living together in a digitally shaped present. The aim is to foster a dynamic dialogue between art, literature, sociology, and other humanities. The works are regularly made accessible to the public through thematic exhibitions—ranging from early presentations in a vacant chapel to shows in institutions such as the Galerie für Gegenwartskunst E-Werk Freiburg and, most recently, the Villa Merkel in Esslingen am Neckar.

‘Anti Heroes’ at Villa Merkel currently presents a selection from the Jakob Collection and makes its central concern visible: collecting and presenting contemporary art beyond art-historical systems, classifications, and market-driven logics. Lukas Jakob understands his collection as a reflection of a contemporary attitude toward life and as an invitation to explore contemporary art through personal approaches and shared questions. The anti-hero functions as a unifying principle between artists, the collection, and the audience.

The focus is on works that forgo heroic narratives and grand gestures, instead foregrounding doubt, vulnerability, contradiction, and fragile failure. Inspired by reflections on post-heroic heroism, including those by Ulrich Bröckling, the exhibition asks what forms of orientation art can offer today in a world shaped by crises, acceleration, uncertainty, and the rise of authoritarian forces. A conceptual reference point is Han Kang’s novel The Vegetarian. The protagonist does not resist her environment through strength or decisive action, but through withdrawal and refusal. This anti-heroic moment unfolds in the exhibition across five thematic chapters, complemented by an archive and mediation space with an Anti- Heroes Library, as well as a concluding prologue.

The exhibition brings together works by Joschua Yesni Arnaut, Fabio Baroli, Miriam Cahn, Boris De Beijer, Neckar Doll, Natacha Donzé, Marina Faust, Evgenij Gottfried, Jasmine Gregory, Katharina Grosse, Constantin Hartenstein, Roni Horn, Rindon Johnson, Aneta Kajzer, Julian-Jakob Kneer, Schirin Kretschmann, Erica Lambertson, Thomas Liu Le Lann, Annette Merkenthaler, Lucas Muñoz Muñoz, Michael Sailstorfer, Tobias Spichtig, Gabriella Torres-Ferrer, Raphaela Vogel, Jaime Welsh, and Karla Zipfel. The majority of the works come from the Jakob Collection and are supplemented by a small number of loans. Between self-staging and failure, power and powerlessness, visibility and withdrawal, an ensemble of exhausted, contradictory, and vulnerable positions unfolds. Meaning emerges here where classical heroic figures fail and, within the anti-heroic, new forms of proximity, insight, and responsibility become possible.

Anti Heroes. Jakob Collection
Villa Merkel, Esslingen City Gallery,
Esslingen am Neckar
8 March – 7 June 2026

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