Since 2018

About To-Choose

To-Choose began with a friendship in Ghana. Lars Lockemann spent his first years of life there. In 2003 Lars, Anna Esche and Lars’s parents met Edith de Vos in Cape Coast, who had just founded the Baobab Children Foundation, a vocational school. The painter Godwin Adjei Sowah teaches art there. Around 2008 Monika Lockemann organised the first benefit exhibitions of his work in Germany.

In 2017 Lars, Anna and Monika travelled to Ghana, and Godwin took them through the studios of Accra. They came back with an idea: a gallery that shows a different picture of Africa than the one of hunger and aid. In 2018 we bought around thirty works from seven painters and opened our gallery in Stuttgart. Prof. Ablade Glover opened many doors for us in Ghana.

Workshop Week at the Baobab Children Foundation, Cape Coast

From gallery to exhibitions

In March 2021, during the pandemic, we gave up our gallery rooms and sold to collectors abroad. Since 2023 we have worked differently. We see art as a medium for sustainability, and we curate exhibitions for companies, foundations and public places. A second generation of artists works on the ocean, textiles, education and identity. For How to Heal a Broken World we are Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku’s partner in Europe.

See the exhibitions

Timeline

  1. 2017

    Studio visits in Accra, the idea for a gallery

  2. 2018

    First works bought, gallery opens in Stuttgart

  3. 2019

    ARTe Sindelfingen, gallery shows “BLAU! FISCHE!” and “Various Artists”

  4. 2020

    First Thursday at The Daily Music Show, Cape Town, with the AfrA Foundation

  5. 2020/21

    Enam Bosokah at the Porsche Development Centre, Weissach

  6. 2020

    GHANART, Haus Edith Stein, Ludwigsburg

  7. 2021

    C.A.R. Contemporary Art Ruhr, Essen · ARTe Konstanz · gallery rooms closed

  8. 2022

    ARTe Sindelfingen

  9. 2023

    Fair Art, Würzburg Town Hall, for the Baobab Children Foundation

  10. 2024

    Filming “Feeling the Ocean’s Voice” in Ghana · Kobina Nyarko on Sylt

  11. 2025

    How to Heal a Broken World in Ghana, Saxony, Munich, Chemnitz and Paris · Earth in Orbit, Munich · Water. Made Visible., Barcelona · Ellipse Prize

Who we are

To live is to choose GbR. Partners: Anna Esche, Lars Lockemann, Monika Lockemann. Haußmannstraße 28, Stuttgart.

Contact

Partner

We work closely with fairconcept GmbH ↗, which brings art into trade fair and communication projects.

Exhibitions for companies