The museum collection, whose origins lie in the former private collection of the Van der Grinten brothers, is preserved and presented in the historic castle and park complex. Part of the museum are the Joseph Beuys Archives and the museum library. A diverse program of exhibitions, events, such as the herb garden festival and hydrangea festival and educational activities and the historic castle building located in a large park make the museum an institution with international appeal.
Finnish photo and video artist Elina Brotherus (*1972 in Helsinki)'s work includes iconic motifs from art history and the reinterpretation of FLUXUS actions and event scores, the recordings of performances.
During several residencies at Museum Schloss Moyland and the Joseph Beuys Archive, she researched Beuys and Block, actions, images and correspondences, and Beuys' performance photographer Ute Klophaus. Eventually new photographs and video installations emerged in places Beuys frequented in the region and elsewhere, and new works with René Block. Over the course of the project, Brotherus sent a fictional and female figure of Beuys on a journey through her self-portraits wearing a hat. The figure appears, for example, in Venice on the Canale Grande, in Istanbul on the Bosporus or in a field in Kranenburg. The photo series takes the form of a poetic visual narrative. These specific new productions are now being shown for the first time at Museum Schloss Moyland.
This is the first exhibition in North Rhine-Westphalia of Elina Brotherus, one of Finland's most important, internationally successful artists. The exhibition is part of a series of exhibitions on the female view of Joseph Beuys, his artistic work and his time, building on the questions of gender, art, museum and photography already opened in the exhibition Female View (2022).