2022
23.06. - 24.06.
New forms of collaboration increasingly go hand in hand with the aspiration of many museums to be a place of discussion on contemporary issues and to involve new groups of stakeholders. On an ever more frequent basis, major museums with hegemonic histories of establishment and existence are daring to address current, politically explosive issues and engage in discussion with activists. And these seem to find museums to be a useful platform for their concerns.
2022
23.05. - 24.05.
Our understanding of work is shifting: Not only is our work world changing dramatically, but our view of it as well. Museums are also helping to shape notions of work: What is represented in museums as “work”, and what activities are excluded from it, is part of this process of negotiation. The long-standing focus of museums on agricultural, artisanal, and industrial work is increasingly being challenged by current developments.
2022
25.04. - 26.04.
The museum has maintained an ambivalent relationship with audio and sound sources. On the one hand, traditional museum etiquette calls for visitors to be quiet and mindful of the noise they make, while on the other hand, designed listening experiences are playing an ever-bigger role in exhibitions. The use of sound in museums extends from fully composed sound experiences that create a certain ambience or offer guidance, to making the human voice more audible, to strategies that allow us to perceive, for instance, the specific sound of a city or region. Sound, noise, or silence can also serve as the theme or tool of exhibitions.
2022
23.03. - 25.03.
The legacy of National Socialism is often not visible in museum collections and goes far beyond what is commonly known as ‘looted art’. During the National Socialist era, many museums, through their acquisition policies and art dealings, expanded their collections, which were aligned with Nazi ideology—including art that explicitly conformed with the system and often remained in repositories after 1945. Also in the following decades, and up to this day, items with a Nazi history have found their way into museum collections through a variety of routes. There they are stored, often largely unnoticed and more or less under lock and key. Is that a good thing?
2022
11.03.
The pandemic has fundamentally tested the relationship between museums and their audiences. This also applies for the long-standing connection with schools: If up till then museums had been established places of learning outside of schools, they were suddenly no longer available. Conversely, a vacuum opened up in museums, with the otherwise relatively steady stream of school groups staying at home. These exceptional circumstances have given rise to a wealth of new digital opportunities, specifically for schools.
2021
04.11. - 05.11.
Views of city boulevards or idyllic landscapes, of factories or holiday resorts, of alpine peaks or people in traditional dress: since the turn of the twentieth century, postcards have not only shaped the way people see their surroundings, but also the stereotypical image of the “other”. At the same time, postcards have had a broad impact on people communicating by means of images and launching new forms of social interaction and understanding. In their complex mediality, they are an interesting and worthy topic today for a variety of reasons—also and especially in museums.
2021
14.10. - 15.10.
Holocaust education is currently undergoing a process of transformation in museums. Globalisation and digitalisation as well as the loss of eyewitnesses are crucial turning points in this change. At the same time, an increasingly (self-)critical attitude on the part of institutions, exhibition organisers, and educators is changing how museums present their holdings and design their educational programmes: of particular importance here are a reflective approach to images, new digital possibilities, a departure from the national narratives of memory culture, and an examination of one’s own role and that of the institution.
2021
22.09. - 24.09.
History shapes space. It manifests itself in the creation of new neighbourhoods and streets, prestigious buildings, and spacious squares. These traces are covered and written over by subsequent developments and events. In some cases, they are intentionally uncovered again later on and brought back into the mind of the public. This is also true of Munich: as the former “Capital of Movement,” Munich has many squares and sites connected with the history of National Socialism which today serve as places of learning and remembrance.
2021
17.06. - 18.06.
The extreme consequences of the climate crisis and the ongoing protests by young activists such as Fridays for Future have alarmed the general public in the last two years as never before. It is becoming increasingly clear that the climate crisis is not merely a natural disaster but depends on our actions—at least for now. Yet we also know that our actions are not based solely on reason but are culturally influenced and affected by emotions and values. More and more museums are addressing this topic in an attempt to explore the climate crisis not from the perspective of science, but in its cultural and socio-political dimensions.
2021
31.05. - 01.06.
More and more exhibitions are giving people the chance to speak. As contemporary witnesses, they help make individual historical experiences visible, establish overarching historical contexts, and are often the key pillars of the exhibition’s narrative. Frequently, these are voices that would otherwise go unheard: former refugees, members of minorities, activists, and direct witnesses of often marginalised histories.
2021
23.04.
The pandemic hit museums at different stages in their digital transformation journey. While some museums had already developed comprehensive approaches for adding a digital dimension to the different areas of museum work, others still found themselves at the beginning of this process. What the pandemic made clear to all of them, however, was the need and the necessity of staying in touch with their audiences despite closed doors or limited visitors. We are currently experiencing a phase in which the often spontaneous and experimental approaches of this time can be reflected on and potentially adopted permanently.
2021
15.03.
The practice of education is both complex and ephemeral. It arises from careful consideration and experience with topics and visitors, pursues different institutional and individual goals, employs a wide range of methods, and often takes place in a way that could never be predicted or planned in detail. And yet, what remains of this complex process?
2020
30.11. - 01.12.
In a society that is constantly producing ever greater amounts of data in every imaginable area, information graphics and other types of visualisation are gaining in importance—in exhibitions and museums, too. Regardless of whether it concerns the presentation of global migration flows, climate changes, technical production chains, or artistic relationship networks, the use of diagrams, statistical charts, maps, and other types of graphical representation enable complex issues to be depicted which otherwise could not be grasped using objects alone.
2020
19.10. - 20.10.
Religion has returned to the stage of public debate. This is also true of museums and exhibitions. In recent years, there has been a significant diversification and opening of this topic. Museums seem to increasingly see themselves as places of encounter and debate on the topic of religion. At the same time, religion has come to be viewed as an everyday practice and cultural action, as well as an area of conflict.
2020
17.09. - 18.09.
The shifting roles of museums in society have also led to structural changes within museums. One of these is the increasing focus of the curatorial field on education, thus blurring the traditional divisions between curators and art & cultural educators.
2020
07.05. - 08.05.
Milan is one of Italy’s top cities for culture and media, as well as being a university town and international financial centre. The second largest city of the country is considered hip and is currently setting international standards in contemporary architecture, fashion, and design. Our perception of Italy and its cities, however, still oscillates between images of its immense cultural heritage and its present crisis-ridden economic and political situation. The strong commitment to traditional cultural institutions is contrasted by the great need for forward-looking renewal.
2020
07.04. - 09.04.
Architecture and housing, transport and public space, and ecology and migration are some of the key issues facing cities at the moment. This is also true of London, bustling with energy and Europe’s largest city. A look at our area of interest reveals London’s dynamic development, both in terms of the creation of new museum and cultural spaces as well as in the way the city and urban issues are collected, exhibited, and communicated in these spaces.
2020
12.03. - 13.03.
Museums enjoy a high level of credibility: they are attributed with the potential to reinforce values like diversity, participation, and openness in a society. Historically, however, museums have tended to be representatives of normative values. Collections and exhibitions generally reflect patriarchal, binary, and heterosexual gender norms. But what about ways of life and identity constructions beyond this ‘heterosexual matrix’? If museums tend to portray heteronormative images, this raises the question of alternative approaches.
2019
21.11. - 22.11.
Where museum guards used to protect valuable objects and ensure safety and order, the modern conception of the museum sees visitor services associates as the “business card of their institution”: whether permanently employed or outsourced – they are the initial points of contact and, in many cases, the only representatives of the museum with whom visitors come in direct contact.
2019
17.10. - 18.10.
The expansion of museums onto the Internet is one of the most fundamental changes currently taking place within the institution. The key concept of going digital is audience orientation – on the one hand, to motivate new groups to visit the museum, and on the other, to interest people online and invite them to explore the contents of the museum while underway or at home. The latter with increasing tendency: the 24/7 museum has long since begun collecting statistics on clicks per month.