Exhibitions 2014

Vkhutemas, often referred to as the “Russian Bauhaus”, was a legendary art school of Modernism in the 1920s. A Russian Laboratory of Modernity was the first exhibition in Germany to show an important sampling – mainly focused on architecture – of the work of Vkhutemas. On display were some 250 works: sketches, drawings, paintings and models by staff and students. The exhibition has been mounted by the Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow.

The PASOLINI ROMA exhibition dealt with the Italian writer and film-maker Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922–1975) in the context of his relationship with Rome. Pasolini in Rome conjures up visions of poetry, politics, a zest for big-city living, sex, friendship and cinema.

Warriors and conquerors, sailors, traders, farmers and highly specialized craftspeople: from the ninth to eleventh century the Vikings dominated the North and Baltic Seas. They travelled from Russia up to the Byzantine Empire, established settlements on the coasts of Greenland and North America. The Berlin exhibition centred around the restored Danish longship, Roskilde 6, which is on display for the first time. It was the largest surviving Viking warship with a length of 37 metres.

Photography Challenges History. Central exhibition of the 6th European Month of Photography Berlin

How are historical events, cultural characteristics and changes in social conditions portrayed by today’s artists and photographers who use the mediums of photography and video? How is the distance between then and now, between current living conditions and the object of interest photographically constructed and what “reality” is being presented? How is memory formulated and how does this counteract the act of forgetting?

Walker Evans (1903–1975) was one of the great personalities of 20th century photography, being an exponent of what is called the “documentary style”.In the exhibition Walker Evans. A Life’s Work, his oeuvre, which spans a period of over fifty years, was represented by well over 200 original prints from the years 1928 to 1974, taken mostly from the considerable private collection of Clark and Joan Worswick, but also from various German collections.

In commemoration of the outbreak of the First World War, the Martin-Gropius-Bau presented an exhibition entitled The World ca. 1914 – Colour Photography Before the Great War, which featured nearly forgotten colour photographs and films commissioned by the French banker Albert Kahn (1860-1940) before the First World War. As the nations of Europe were already arming themselves for battle, Kahn, who was excited by the Lumière Brothers’ colour photography process, dispatched photographers out into the world to develop a unique photo archive. Over 70,000 colour photos have survived in this collection. They represent an immense ethnographic treasure and were also intended to perform a mission of peace: Bringing the outside world closer to home. Kahn’s activities were intended to help secure the fragile peace. The exhibition brought this treasure trove of images from a long forgotten world to light.

The David Bowie exhibition demonstrated the visionary power of one of the most influential artists in recent music history. The curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh, were given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive. They selected approximately 300 objects that were on show at the Martin-Gropius-Bau of Berliner Festspiele. The Berlin years from 1976 to 1978 were among Bowie’s most productive ones. The exhibits show how Bowie has playfully overcome the borders between dream and reality, genres and genders. The exhibition in Berlin was organized by the communications agency Avantgarde.

Despite all the incredible hostility shown him in his own country Ai Weiwei decided to put on his largest one-man exhibition yet in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau. On 3,000 square metres in 18 rooms and the spectacular Lichthof he displayed works and installations which were either designed for the Martin-Gropius-Bau or had not yet been shown in Germany. The name he has given to his exhibition is Evidence, a term well known beyond the English-speaking world from American TV crime series in the meaning of proof that will stand up in court. It was a political exhibition that Ai Weiwei has designed for Berlin in his simple and spacious studio in the rural outskirts of Beijing.

The oeuvre of Hans Richter (1888-1976) spanned nearly seven decades. His work is characterised by a virtually unparalleled interpenetration of different artistic disciplines. The link between film and art was his major theme. Many of the most famous artists of the first half of the twentieth century were among his friends. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art developed the exhibition Hans Richter: Encounters – “From Dada till today” in cooperation with the Martin-Gropius-Bau and the Centre Pompidou Metz. Timothy Benson is the curator. It demonstrated how Richter comprehended his working style, which bridged many disciplines, and what impact his work had on the art of the twentieth century.

The show Wols Photographer. The Guarded Look covered all of Wolfgang Schulze’s, known as Wols, photographic work, including multiple portraits of famous artists, actors and writers, photographs of the Pavillon de l´Élégance, numerous still lifes, and many hitherto unknown motifs. The exhibition has been curated by the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, where this unique collection will be kept and systematically catalogued.