The Deichtorhallen Shows Works from the Collections of Thomas Olbricht & Harald Falckenberg

Written by Gunther Schumacher Friday, 30 March 2012 21:35

Hamburg - The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg is proud to present its summer exhibition "Two Collectors: Thomas Olbrecht and Harald Falckenberg", on view in the Halle fur Aktuelle Kunst until August 21st. The exhibition features works from two of the most important private collections of contemporary art in Germany. One main feature of the collection of doctor and chemist Thomas Olbricht (who lives in Essen and Berlin), is a clear proclivity for eclecticism, in which context his programmatic focus lies on memento mori depictions. By contrast, Hamburg-based lawyer Harald Falckenberg is more interested in the grotesque, the political and the provocative.

The show presents a good cross section of contemporary art, with both decidedly contrasting themes and others that are placed in mutually complementary juxtaposition, such as death, sexuality, youth, images of women, the child-like, the private, the public, and the various forms of abstract art. The narrative element is very strongly present in the works of both collections. Beauty and horror, humor, everyday life and tragedy, not to mention political aspects all converge here, often in a surprising manner. The exhibition at Deichtorhallen shows both the many different layers to these two private collections and various unknown aspects of them. On view will be about 200 high-grade works by over 100 international artists such as Richard Artschwager, Maurizio Cattelan, Paul McCarthy, Mark Dion, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Martin Kippenberger, Wolfe Von Lenkiewicz, Takashi Murakami, Richard Prince, Gerhard Richter, Phil Collins, Jake and Dinos Chapman, George Condo, Sylvie Fleury and many more.

The Deichtorhallen Hamburg is Europe's largest exhibition center for contemporary art and photography. The two historical buildings dating from 1911-13 are real eye-catchers, with their open steel-and-glass structures. It is an architecture that today creates the backdrop for spectacular major international shows. Since 2011, the two buildings at the interface of Hamburg's Kunstmeile and Hafencity have been supplemented by a satellite in Hamburg's Harburg district, the Sammlung Falckenberg. Between 1911 und 1914, the Deichtorhallen were built as market halls on the grounds of the former "Berliner Bahnhof", Hamburg's counterpart to Berlin's "Hamburger Bahnhof". They constitute one of the few surviving examples of industrial architecture from the transitional period between Art Nouveau and 20th-century styles. The two halls are open steel structures, the northern hall is a longitudinal edifice boasting three naves and a 3,800 sq.m. footprint; the southern hall (1,800 sq.m.) is a building with a lantern roof. Rupprecht Matthies created two "language cylinders" visitors can walk through for Deichtorplatz - which is also home to a Richard Serra sculpture. In the northern hall, there is a line of neon writing by Mario Merz and a "Blue Disc" by Imi Knoebel. Körber-Stiftung gifted the restored Deichtorhallen to the City of Hamburg, which has owned them ever since. In 1989, they were assigned to a limited liability company: Deichtorhallen-Ausstellungs GmbH. On Nov. 9, 1989 Deichtorhallen's international art exhibition program opened with the show "Einleuchten", curated by Harald Szeemann. Down through the years, Deichtorhallen Hamburg has emerged as an exhibition center for photography and contemporary art with three pillars of activities, three institutions under the single Deichtorhallen brand. Since 2009 Dr. Dirk Luckow has been Artistic Director of Deichtorhallen Hamburg. Visit the Deichtorhallen's website at ... http://www.deichtorhallen.de

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