ZKM Museum Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Major Exhibition

Written by Götz Adriani Thursday, 10 March 2011 23:34

KARLSRUHE.- The large scale major anniversary exhibition “just what is it ...” celebrates ten-years of the Museum of Contemporary Art in the bays 1 and 2 of the Hallenbau of the ZKM presenting works from Cézanne and the expressionists through to Picasso, from Baumeister to Wols, from Pollock to Rothko, from Warhol and Beuys to Baselitz, Kiefer, Kippenberger, and Rehberger, so extensively laid out and of such high international renown. On 4 December 1999, the Museum of Contemporary Art opened at the ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe with the goal of presenting key private collections from the German federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

This 10th anniversary offers the occasion to present an exhibition showcasing the situation that found precisely here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is a concentration of private collectors and collections—reaching beyond the circle of hitherto partners of the Museum of Contemporary Art—unique throughout the federal states, with extraordinary inventories in terms of both quality and quantity. Nowhere else can be found private collections, from the classical modern through to contemporary art.

In celebration of its ten-year existence, the Museum of Contemporary Art has become a “Temporary Museum of the Modern Era.” One hundred years of art from the beginning of the twentieth century to the first decade of the twenty-first, is documented on the basis of first-class, privately owned seminal works in Baden-Wuerttemberg. In this way, important developmental lines of modernity and postmodernity can be shown. In the sense of a “musée imaginaire,” the Museum of Contemporary Art thereby becomes a site that enables an opulent overview of the currents and trends from the first decade of the twentieth century to the present.

“just what is it ...” is the beginning of the title of an incunable of Pop art: the famous collage by Richard Hamilton from 1956, which for one, can be seen on display in the exhibition, marking roughly the midpoint of the era covered. For another, “just what is it ...” serves as impulse for a sequence of wonderful associations that are offered to beholders at the various levels of this exhibition. From a cultural political point of view, too, this exhibition can be considered a highlight of the cultural year 2009/2010 in Baden-Württemberg, especially since it is under the patronage of Prime Minister of State Günther H. Oettinger.

The comprehensive anniversary catalogue mirrors this nationwide-unique concept, and additionally offers a clear picture of the different profiles of the individual exhibitions. Along with numerous illustrations and a chronicle of the Museum of Contemporary Art, which offers an impressive look back at the diverse exhibition program over the past ten years

IMAGINING MEDIA@ZKM :: For its twentieth anniversary, the ZKM | Center for Media and Art Karlsruhe will present, its best artistic productions in a lavishly planned review beginning on 10 October 2009. In its research institutes, more than 500 visiting artists from around the world have produced a great number of highly regarded works, which following their presentation in Karlsruhe, have been honored worldwide in biennales, festivals, and exhibitions thereby decisively contributing to shaping the face of media art for two decades. The show aims at no less than reconstructing the international development of media art based on the best productions from the ZKM.

Experiments in Art and Technology. research@zkm :: In conjunction with its twenty-year anniversary, ZKM will open its archives. More than 1,500 videos, around 13,650 works of electroacoustic music and a selection of more than 1,000 documents can be comfortably called up and studied at viewing and listening sites and via innovative interfaces. With the archive exhibition Experiments in Art and Technology ZKM displays a central piece of media art history.  Visit : http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/e/

---

Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~