10 years me Collectors Room Berlin: This anniversary will be celebrated from 29 February to May 17th, 2020 with an exhibition that takes a highly personal look into both, the activities of the foundation and the Olbricht Collection.
Image above: FORT, Symptoms Of The Universe, 2018 © Courtesy of the artists; Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf
Flows of energy pass through us, moving us, our world, and everything in our universe. Thomas Olbricht has often also described his experience and life with art as a flow of energy that he likes to share with as many people as possible. Our art space in fact took its name after this wish of his: moving energies – me Collectors Room Berlin.
MOVING ENERGIES, or energy flows resulting from the interplay of diverse objects, genres and epochs, also characterize the eclecticism of the Olbricht Collection. Exhibits, which include model fire engines, Art Nouveau objects, romantic landscape paintings, designer furniture, African wood sculptures, stamps, globes and Old Masters still life paintings as well as the Renaissance and Baroque objects of the Wunderkammer and, above all, Contemporary Art. These objects are united in the collector’s private rooms. French Art Nouveau vases are grouped before of a romantic sunset painting by Carl Robert Kummer; Ewald Mataré’s sculptures are bundled on the shelf next to an abstract colour explosion by Katharina Grosse; and Baroque carved objects are presented against the backdrop of a black and white film still by Cindy Sherman. Some of these seemingly idiosyncratic compositions make up the collector’s highly subjective universe.
In the spring 2010, Thomas Olbricht opened the me Collectors Room Berlin, thereby making his collection accessible to the public. In close to twenty exhibitions, individual parts of the collection were presented and explored. The inspiration for these shows, as well as for the acquisition of art for the collection itself, is the result of Olbricht’s travels and visits to exhibitions and art fairs. The subsequent reflection on such encounters and the maturing of concrete formulations predominantly takes place in the private sphere, i.e. at home, amid art, paintings, invitations, auction catalogues and the collecting foci.
These private rooms are recreated in MOVING ENERGIES in ‘stage sets’ that render the collector’s inspirations and ideas directly accessible. All collection areas, some of which have been a continuous focus for years, others the result of a phasic interest, are united. The areas are presented in the private ‘staged sets’ to better illustrate the multi-faceted creative process of collecting.
Thomas Olbricht began collecting stamps when he was just five years old and is still an avid lover of first day covers from all countries. Through decades of meticulous collecting activity, Thomas Olbricht has a complete collection of Gerhard Richter’s editions, which include more than 170 works. As part of the exhibition, a space will be devoted to the abstract works of Richter from the collection. The Wunderkammer, with its precious Renaissance and Baroque objects, is another years-long focus of the collection, as are model fire engines and paper maché plants, which were a permanent fixture in German schools at the turn of the century. Works by Cindy Sherman, Claire Fontaine, FORT, Thomas Schütte oder William N. Copley are juxtaposed with other works by Georg Baselitz, Willi Baumeister, Albrecht Dürer, Carroll Dunham, Nicole Eisenman, Katharina Grosse, Anselm Kiefer, Karin Kneffel, Alicja Kwade, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Dana Schutz, Timm Ulrichs, Jorinde Voigt and John Wesley, which have not previously been exhibited.
It is precisely from the synopsis of all these collection areas in his home that Thomas Olbricht draws propelling energy time and again. With MOVING ENERGIES, the collector provides visitors with a unique and personal insight into his collection.
Events
The exhibition will also be accompanied by a comprehensive supporting programme with public guided tours every first Saturday of the month, and workshops for kitas and school groups, Art & Mindfulness workshops for adults, the open children’s programme and our weekly programme with daily offers.
12.03, 6:30 pm: Art & pleasure: Markus Otto Graf is speaking with Thomas Olbricht
01.04, 6:30 pm: Wunderkammer Olbricht – Fascination of collecting. Georg Laue (Curator Wunderkammer Olbricht), Thomas Olbricht and Dirk Syndram (Director Grünes Gewölbe & Rüstkammer, Dresden) in dialogue
26.04, 4 pm: Gerhard Richter’s Colour panel paintings – An art historical lecture by Hubertus Butin
WHEN?
Saturday, February 29th to Sunday, May 17th, 2020
Wednesday – Monday, noon – 6 pm
WHERE?
me Collectors Room Berlin / Stiftung Olbricht
Auguststraße 68
10117 Berlin-Mitte
