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

A Wednesday morning at the German Historical Museum: The exhibition is open to the public since last night and we are only interested in one thing—the response in the press. The computers in the project offices are quicker than usual, the Google Alerts are already in the mail boxes, and the outside world’s digital evaluation is quickly consumed. There is no audio record of events, but our responses reflected a wide range of emotions. 

The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945 reopened to the public in Milan's Palazzo Reale three weeks ago. The opening speeches have been held. The newspapers have published their first reviews. Now it’s time to take a step back. Sticking to the subject of exhibition terminology, we would like to ask: How did the exhibition idea—‘the world in our heads’—become a model and then an exhibition? Why should a painting not hang next to a photograph? And how tall is our ‘optimal visitor’?

The exhibition designer Werner Schulte answered these questions for us. 

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!