Institute
IKS promotes and communicates the visual arts – through documentaries, artist portraits, exhibitions and teaching.
Founded in 2009 by Ralph Goertz. With more than 500 documented artists, IKS is one of the largest private media archives of the visual arts in Europe.
What we do
IKS is the only institution in Germany to combine documentation, digitisation, art education and art marketing.
Films about art
Artist films, documentaries and trailers – in cooperation with international museums or as our own productions.
FilmsFilm programme for museums
Drawing on our archive, we create films that extend the content of exhibitions: artist portraits from Beuys to ZERO, thematic art films from Impressionism to video art, and educational films such as “Talking about Art”.
ServicesExhibitions – IKS PHOTO
Since 2022, IKS PHOTO has produced and curated photography exhibitions internationally – focusing on German, British, Italian and American photography since the 1960s.
ExhibitionsTeaching and lectures
Seminars, lectures and guest talks at art schools and academies, including the Akademie der Künste Berlin and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf – on film aesthetics, artistic strategies, media art and copyright, curating and cultural management.
Ralph Goertz
Filmmaker, curator of photography and cultural manager
Founder and director of IKS
Ralph Goertz studied theatre, film and television studies, law (copyright) and German at the Ruhr University Bochum and holds a master's degree (M.A.S.) in cultural management and art studies from the Lucerne/Zurich University of Art and Design.
From 2003 to 2008 he was artistic director of the Kammeroper NRW, developing a new form of performing art between opera, theatre and video art. He founded IKS in 2009 and its photography department IKS PHOTO in 2022.
Awards
- 2024Winner of the On Art Poland film festival, Warsaw – for the documentary on Andreas Gursky
- 2020“Best Exhibition 2020” – Subjekt und Objekt. Foto Rhein-Ruhr, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (curated with Gregor Jansen and Dana Bergmann)
- 2019DIE WELT names the Martin Parr Retrospective one of the nine best summer exhibitions in Europe
- 2011Delphic Art Movie Award for Robert Mapplethorpe. Shapes
- 2006Nomination for the German theatre award DER FAUST for “Ich muss gucken, ob ich da bin” (video)
- The City of Düsseldorf named three exhibitions by Ralph Goertz “lighthouse exhibitions” of the photography city Düsseldorf
Work with us?
A film for your exhibition, a photography exhibition, a lecture – we look forward to hearing from you.