At the end of 2023, the “Kunstkammer Gegenwart” gave an insight into the contemporary art holdings of the Hoffmann Collection Donation (SHO) and other collections at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden for the first time. With the second “Kunstkammer Gegenwart”, the format continues to establish itself with the first complete exchange of all works. Every fall, it is set up from scratch. In each case, a leitmotif serves as a common thread for the selection of works from the SHO’s collection. For the second “Kunstkammer Gegenwart”, which will be on display from November 30, 2024 (Opening 29 November), the theme is “human”. In the sculptures, paintings, graphics and video works, the show takes a human approach.
Image above: Rebecca Horn, Silver Crane, 1984, Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Foto: Herbert Boswank © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
This can initially be quite concrete: The nude, a classic of art, is shown in numerous variations: as a collection of prints, as a large-format nude photograph by Craigie Horsfield, as a photographic portfolio by Gundula Schulze-Eldowy or in a disturbing drawing by Cloe Piene. Tracey Emin, on the other hand, had herself locked in a gallery space and photographed naked while painting. In doing so, she simultaneously reflected on her role as an artist and as a muse – traditionally painted by men.
Art includes the staging, the pose, shown here, for example, in the double portrait that Andy Warhol created of Erika and Rolf Hoffmann. Made up like a model, shining with diamond dust, the patron becomes an icon in the artist’s portrait.
The second “Kunstkammer Gegenwart” also reflects the relationship between man and the divine. In his bronze sculpture, Emil Cimiotti addresses the myth of Daphne, who can only escape the desire of the god Apollo by transforming herself into a laurel tree. Uwe Piller devotes himself to the famous motif from the Sistine Chapel in Rome: God and Adam stretch out their hands towards each other. Piller, however, only depicts Adam’s hand on his ceramic tiles and asks what man is, who only creates himself from himself.
Beyond the concrete and tangible, the show is fundamentally dedicated to the question of what defines human nature. Certainly empathy and the ability to love, but also flawedness, striving for power, egoism. How is the human differentiated from the inhuman, from the monstrous, but also – in times of AI – from the artificial?
Cornelia Schleime shows the traitor, his mouth wired and connected to an unknown receiver. Frank Maasdorf carves the horrors of war into his wooden sculpture with red paint, while Detlef Reinemer’s “Heretic” juts upwards like a metal spearhead.
Things become abstract with Frank Stella, whose artwork “Concentric Squares” does not depict people, but rather focuses on their perception of and reaction to art.
“With the Kunstkammer Gegenwart, we want to open up our depots to the public,” says Dorothée Brill, Head of the Hoffmann Collection Donation. “It’s about making the full wealth and richness of our contemporary collections visible, while at the same time showing the works to their best advantage and highlighting references.”
The spatial concept was created by designer Konstantin Grčić. He designed a modular, flexible structure that is reminiscent of a depot as a wall-spanning framework and can be changed according to the needs of the exhibited works of art. Inspired by industrial architecture, the modular elements leave the given space untouched – a respectful treatment of the existing architecture of the Dresden Residenzschloss.
The design by Konstantin Grčić also includes a show workshop. Here, visitors can see how the fragile materials of contemporary art are professionally restored. Several times a week, the public can watch the restorer at work and talk to her.
Throughout the month of December, “Transformers” will be out and about in the exhibition from Friday to Sunday. In individual conversations with visitors, they ask about the subjective view of art and open up an unusual approach to the works for the public through this intensive dialog.
Until November 2, 2025, the second “Kunstkammer Gegenwart” will show around 70 works from the Hoffmann Collection donation, the Albertinum, the Kunstfonds and the Kupferstich-Kabinett – a multifaceted approach to the “human”.
WHEN?
Opening: Friday, November 29, 2024, 6:30 pm
With a keynote speech by Dr. Olivia Mitscherlich-Schönherr, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Potsdam and Distinguished Fellow at the Max Weber College for Cultural and Social Science Research, entitled “Ungeheuer ist viel. But nothing is more monstrous than the human being”.
Duration: Saturday, November 30, 2024 to Sunday, November 2, 2025
Opening hours: daily 10 am to 6 pm, closed on Tuesday
WHERE?
Residential Palace
Schlossstr./Ecke Taschenberg
01067 Dresden
COST?
Regular: 14 EUR
Reduced: 10,50 EUR
under 17 years: free
Groups from 10 pers.: 12,50 EUR p.p.
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