THE ARCHIVE AS ...
... A PROVOCATION
... WHAT CAN BE SAID
... A HEADACHE
... THE ACT OF PUBLISHING
... MAKING THINGS PUBLIC
... A CELEBRATION
... A SCORE
... AN ONGOING DIALOGUE
... A REHEARSAL
... EVERYTHING NOT SAVED WILL BE LOST
... A PLACE OF GATHERING
... THE REFUSAL OF THE GHOSTS TO GIVE UP ON US
An exhibition and discursive program with: manuel arturo abreu, Niloufar Emamifar, Saidiya Hartman, Moshtari Hilal, Onyeka Igwe, Joshua Leon, Maria Lind, Michaela Melián, Shola von Reinhold, Alan Ruiz, Rachel Salamander, Nora Sternfeld, Sinthujan Varatharajah, Helena Vilalta, James Voorhies, and many more
May 27–August 27, 2023
On the occasion of the bicentennial of Kunstverein München, the exhibition brings together two centuries of the institution’s archival documents for the first time. During the exhibition these will be embedded in a dense discursive program to question how this historical material and the topography of its absences can be made productive for the present.
Joining materials stored on site at the Kunstverein, among them publications, posters, and printed matter, is an inventory of archival records held by the city archive of Munich. Here administrative documents, documentation of exhibitions or artworks are presented, “read,” and put into relation with each other as visual testimonies situated in an adaptable display structure.
On a weekly basis, artists, theorists, (art) historians, and former team members dedicate themselves to the archival material under certain focus points of their own research or experience, (re)arranging and contextualizing or inserting new material. In this way, the history of the Kunstverein will be discussed in a polyphonic context, as the “spokesperson” role of the institution is handed over. The exhibition format, changing through its different actors, negotiates with and in public the question of how histories are constituted. In this process, the past is not treated as one to be reconstructed, but as a representation of reality guided by (personal) interests and contradictions.
THE ARCHIVE AS ... is accompanied by a comprehensive educational program such as the Summer School, which brings together over fifty artists and cultural practitioners to test the possibilities of collective knowledge production.
Anniversary weekend
June 30–July 2, 2023
The anniversary weekend commences with a party on Friday, June 30, for shared moments of celebration and dancing. On Sunday, July 2, Kunstverein München will host an all-day event in the public space surrounding the institution with performances, concerts, and food for everyone.
FOR NOW. 200 Years of Kunstverein München
Publication on the occasion of the bicentennial
June 2023
FOR NOW. 200 Years of Kunstverein München is a comprehensive publication dedicated to the institution, its history, its publics, and its artists. In addition to contributions by Andrea Fraser, Christian Fuhrmeister, Quinn Latimer, Doreen Mende, Philip Ursprung, and more, the book brings together an extensive collection of visual material and other documents that retrace the institution’s rich artistic, but also bureaucratic and sociopolitical, activities over 200 years.
Park
Performance series in the Hofgarten
May–September 2023
An art institution never exists only within its own material walls: this summer, the spaces of Kunstverein München will physically expand into the adjacent Hofgarten through the performance series Park. Across three iterations, the stage of the park as a socially resistant site is tested by questioning the previously told stories of the garden. The series includes new productions by Shade Théret together with Magdalena Mitterhofer, Luisa Fernanda Alfonso, and Jan Kunkel.
Director: Maurin Dietrich
Curator: Gloria Hasnay
Assistant Curator: Gina Merz
Archivist: Jonas von Lenthe
For further information, please contact our press office or visit our website.
