Mönchengladbach, June 26. Since yesterday afternoon, the former Karstadt building on Rheydter Markt has been the exhibition venue for works by students of the Hochschule Niederrhein. The entire glass front of the building - several hundred meters in total - is covered with 64 pictures from the inside. The pictures show student work created from 1997 to the present day in the subject of color theory in the Degree programme in Design Engineering. The pictures are expected to be on display until fall.

Mayor Felix Heinrichs sees the exhibition at this location as a real enrichment: "I am very pleased that the vacancy at this location in the shop windows is now giving way. Making this possible has not been easy. But we were successful: we found a great partner in the Hochschule Niederrhein, and the exhibition is really an eye-catcher that certainly invites people to go window shopping in a very special way."

University President Dr. Thomas Grünewald is pleased that the student works are doing their part to give the Hochschule Niederrhein a greater presence in downtown Rheydt. "Here, visitors to the city center can marvel at the results of student work from the subject of color theory," said Thomas Grünewald at the opening late yesterday afternoon.

The paintings on display are done with acrylic or oil paints and show works created by student teams. The professor of color theory since 1997 was Renate Schmitt, who retired last semester. "My point in the course was to get the students involved in a playful design process where they didn't know what the end result would be," Renate Schmitt says. What made it special was the teamwork; the individual pictures were not evaluated. "I wanted to show what artistic achievements the students are capable of when they can create something together, oblivious and without pressure."