Moving is in every direction. Environments – Installationen – Narrative Räume. Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin. 17 March – 24 September 2017. Curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers and Gabriele Knapstein (assisted by Ina Dinter).
The Hamburger Bahnhof is one of my all-time favourite museums in the world that I have visited up to this day. When I visited Berlin earlier this month, we of course had to go there. Apart from a great own collection, they also have very relevant and interesting temporary exhibitions. One of the exhibitions that was on show during our visit, was Moving is in every direction, a massive exhibition with environments and installation atworks from their own collection and other museum and private collections.
Where the majority of the exhibitions tend to focus on two-dimensional artworks or a mix of 2D and 3D, an entire exhibition with big-scale artworks where the visitors can immerge themselves in is refreshing. This calls for a big presentation room though. Luckily, the Rieckhalls of the museum building and a majority of the west wing provide more than enough room for the twenty-odd installations by many renowned twentieth-century artists. In short: the exhibition really interested me. Not only did the enormous size of it offer enough exercise, it also offered more than enough mental stimulation. Following are some highlights of the presentation:
Wolf Vostell, Elektronischer Dé-coll/age, Happening Rau E.d.H.R., 1968-1982, Collection Nationalgalerie Berlin.
Bernhard Leitner, Ton-Röhre, 1973-2008, loan of the artist.
Robert Kusmirowski, Transition, 2009, loan of the artist.
Peter Fischli & David Weiss, Ohne Titel (Fragen Projektion), 1981-2003, Friedrich Christian Flick Collection in Hamburger Bahnhof.
Christopher Kulendran Thomas, New Eelam, 2017. Collaboration with Annika Kuhlmann, loan of the artists.
Pipilotti Rist, Remake of the Weekend, 1998-2017, Nationalgalerie Berlin, donated to Flick Collection in 2014.
Marcel Broodthaers, Un Jardin d’Hiver, 1974, Friedrich Christian Flick Collection Hamburger Bahnhof.
Joseph Beuys, Das Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1982-1983, Nationalgalerie Berlin, Sammlung Marx.
To conclude: the exhibition was very beautiful and intruiging to me, because the displayed artworks could be experienced more. Environments stimulate a more active approach with the artwork because you can walk through them and use more senses to experience and appreciate them. A very interesting exhibition indeed, a must see if you’re around Berlin before the end of September.
Linda Köke 