The me Collectors Room Berlin, a valued and popular exhibition venue in the center of the gallery district in Mitte, is permanently closing its rooms in Auguststraße in the year of its 10th anniversary.
Image above: Café in front, contemporary art and Wunderkammer in the back: me Collectors Room Berlin in Auguststraße, Photo: Daisy Loewl
On the evening of May 7th, 2020, the operators announced that after a decade of successful exhibition and mediation activities, the me Collectors Room Berlin as a platform for international art collections with a wide variety of content will be closed. After extensive renovation work, the Peter Janssen Collection – one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Samurai aesthetics, craftsmanship and war art – will move into the building erected for the me Collectors Room at Auguststraße 68.
The Olbricht Foundation will continue to focus on the promotion of cultural education projects for children and young people. In the future, this mediation work in the area of cultural education will be relocated from Berlin to Essen, the place of residence of Claudia and Thomas Olbricht, initiators of the me Collectors Room and the Wunderkammer, which is also housed there.
In Essen, the Olbricht Foundation supports the Bodelschwinghschule and plans further partnerships with schools in the region to promote cultural education projects. A cooperation with the Museum Folkwang in Essen for an “Artist in Residence” programme is in preparation.
In Berlin and Brandenburg, the Olbricht Foundation will continue the Wunderkammerschiff in cooperation with the Helga Breuninger Foundation. The ship has been sailing through Berlin and Brandenburg as a museum space since 2016 and, with the support of the Ministries of Science, Research and Culture and of Education, Youth and Sports of the State of Brandenburg, will bring the contents of the Wunderkammer to Brandenburg by the end of 2021.
The Peter Janssen Collection, which is now still located in Clayallee in Zehlendorf, will move to Mitte from probably autumn 2020. The owners announce that the “Samurai Museum Berlin” will provide a unique insight into almost 1,000 years of Japanese history and culture under the influence of the Samurai through the extraordinary exhibits and the versatile use of future-oriented technology.
