Deutsches Historisches Museum - Verf�hrung Freiheit. Kunst in Europa seit 1945 - Blog

At the end of the video Vladimir Mitrev looks up, directly into the camera, sweating—beneath one sees the German national flag, whose colours he has just applied in four hours, or some ten kilometres, of walking. His video installation is titled Schwarz Rot Gelb (2009–2011) [Black Red Yellow]

The path to Germany is not an easy one. 

“A man found an aquarium on a road between towns—an aquarium with live fish in it. Someone had caught the fish in the lake and put them there on the road, hoping someone driving along the road would stop and buy the fresh fish. That is called a parallel economy—in contrast to the organised economy planned by the government and the state. This parallel economy developed as a way of survival.”

Our visitors are our quality management: What did they like, what did they think could have been better and did they even read our blog? If you want to know – even before visiting the exhibition – what others thought, said or where they went for coffee afterwards, keep on reading!

Other than that we will show you all the articles, texts and works by students who participated in our educational tours. What do they think about democracy, equality, freedom and human rights?

We don’t have anything against criticism – do you have better ideas on how to present our visitors and their opinions? Do you think our questions are boring? Don’t leave us in the dark! Comment below or write us!

“The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945“ is the 30th Council of Europe art exhibition. The Council has 47 member states and wants to achieve “a greater unity between its members for the purpose of safeguarding and realising the ideals and principles which are their common heritage and facilitating their economic and social progress.” (Article 1, Statute of the Council of Europe). How does the Council want to achieve that? What else does it do? And what were the stories behind the other 29 Council of Europe art exhibitions? This is what we are going to look at in this category. And not to forget the European Commission which finances the exhibition.

(Who prefers reading Wikipedia or directly about the art exhibitions on the CoE site, please click here, here and here.)

Every exhibition begins with an idea. The idea of The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945 was to examine European values on the basis of the idea of the Enlightenment. What actually binds Europe together, when socialism and democracy irreconcilably confronted each other for so long? And how can values and ideas be presented beyond geographical and political boundaries?

The curators of the exhibition set out on a journey to research these questions. They travelled for two years across all of Europe. During their journey, they not only involuntarily spent a night at the Serbo-Croatian border, but also successfully acquired over 200 loan agreements. And the journey continues: Milan, Tallinn, and Krakow are the next destinations for The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945.

We therefore want to try our hand at travel blogging (and tips are always welcome), recounting the travels taken through Europe by our curators, artworks, and exhibition.