Deutsches Historisches Museum - Verf�hrung Freiheit. Kunst in Europa seit 1945 - Blog

With the Tuesday Question we want to introduce a blog category dedicated to the questions most frequently asked by visitors. We hear about these questions from the security staff in the exhibition and the guest book. We also enjoy the contact via Facebook or Twitter (#D4freedom) very much.

Last weekend we had a celebration at the museum and the question that our curator Monika Flacke heard most frequently was:

How are the objects chosen for an exhibition?  

"I wanted to create a painting that you could not enter. You need to stay on the surface."

Tjebbe Beekman has his studio in Berlin Hohenschönhausen. Anyone who immediately thinks of the Stasi (State Security Service) Prison Memorial there is right on. His studio is right next door. The industrial building, where many artists work, exudes a menacing charm. The previously-visited Memorial adds to this impression. The large-format photograph Stasi City by Jane and Louise Wilson from our exhibition also plays it part. 

Cora worked with the ‘Desire for Freedom’ project for six weeks as an intern. She was even able to squeeze in a bit of time between enquiring about image rights for our catalogue, obtaining photo material, proofreading, and checking colour proofs to give us her impressions. 

The Romanian artist, Dan Perjovschi, takes 69 seconds to draw his picture on the wall in our exhibition space. In 69 seconds the word ‘capitalism’ is split in two and illustrated. ‘Capital’ gets a stick figure and the ‘ism’ a whole crowd of them. Once or twice the artist steps back a bit and looks at the drawing. Then he enlarges the ‘ism’ group.  

To provide you with an overview of the press response to the exhibition, we summarised several reviews and provided links to several others. A question brought up by two of the critics was whether a historical museum is necessary in order to present an art exhibition?

This question caused me to hesitate slightly. My perspective is neither that of an art historian nor of a historian (but rather one of a theatre scholar, if it is of interest).