Museum memories
posted on: - updated on: the same day
This post is in reply to James' IndieWeb Carnival for March: Museum memories.
When I read the title I knew immediatly that I absolutely wanted to tell a particular story. One that is so absurd, I still can't believe this acutally happened. It's also connected to me developing a strange fascination with Joseph Beuys. But one thing after the other.
This is great art!
Years ago, on the yearly company outing, we went to the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. It was my first visit there and one of the rare ones I have ever made to an art exhibition.
Shortly after entering and getting our tickets, everyone quickly disappeared in all directions and I found myself alone in the first room. I took a good look around, feeling a bit lost, and trying to find my way into the experience. Then I saw and was quickly very fascinated by Picasso's card board violin 1. This piece is sitting in a closed showcase, which is hanging on the wall. I couldn't take my eyes off it, I tried to get a good look at it from all angles possible. I was so fascinated by it that, when I realised one co-worker was still close by, I called him over to show him the piece.
Now the absolutely absurd part: I still had my ticket in my hand and used that to point to all the cool parts. I admit, I was also very close to the glass, but I didn't touch anything. Anyway, it didn't take long and a guard came literally stomping towards us. He then said in a very upset tone: "This is great art you're looking at. Do not use your ticket to point at it! One does not point at great art with a ticket!"
I was so stumped, I didn't know what to say. It took me a while to process what exactly this man had just said. But when it had finally sunken in, we quoted him at every other artwork to remind one another to please absolutely not use our tickets to point at this great art that's exhibited here. The other guards looked at us funny all through the museum and I wonder to this day if they knew exactly what we were talking about, or if they thought we were idiots.
Understanding Beuys
Besides some more Picassos and other art I don't know anything about, there is also art by Joseph Beuys. I stood in front of this "Vitrine" for a long time. It is that kind of art that I used to have a lot of trouble with. Is that really art? True art? Why? And why is my dirty plastic bowl not art? I think it was there that I first started to really think about that.
Later, when I was sitting at a café close by with some colleagues, one of them an art teacher, I talked about that. She gave me the link to a site that is unfortunately no longer in existance. I tried to find it again, but it's gone. It was called "Beuys verstehen" (understanding Beuys), or something like that, and was an interactive site that explained Beuys and his art. I think it was a final exam project from someone doing their thesis about Beuys. It was like a mind map that unfolded as you clicked your way through it. Every node had an audio clip explaining the topic. It was beautiful and a good entrypoint for someone new to his work.
A favourite museum
One question James asks in his initial blog post is if we have a favourite museum. I haven't thought about that before. You see, I do not go to museums often. I live in a small city, we do not have many museums. We don't have any art museum for example. Ahem, of course we do have an art museum. We even have two! I'm such an idiot. Anyway, on with the post... However, the museum of natural history has several great photo exhibitions going every year that I always try to see. One of those is the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. (We always have the one of the previous year, but who cares.) If you ever get the chance to see that one near you - please go!
There is another one that I really like to visit whenever I am in Munich: Kunsthalle München. They do not have a resident exhibition, but instead have a new one twice a year. I think I have seen 3 so far. The topics have been very fascinating and the pieces they exhibit were always stunning.
Museums as places of connection
While I do not visit museums often, I have been incredibly lucky to see some amazing pieces2. (Pieces that shouldn't be owned by European museums, but that I could not have seen otherwise. Except for one time when there was a touring exhibition, which is probably the only correct way of exhibiting such pieces in Europe.) Every time I stand in front of those and other historic pieces I feel a connection that is strong and almost not there at the same time. It's a connection through time to a different place and to the people who made them, who saw them, who lived with them at that different time and place. Other humans made these things thousands of years ago, some half way across the globe, some right here, and I am standing in front of them right now! I even got to hold an original stone age hand-axe at the British Museum once!! How absolutely incredible is this!? And how can anyone not feel this connection to our ancestors in these moments. Or ever.
- Elena.
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