Le Musée sentimental de Kolumba

We could certainly manage to live in the absence of objects. But it is doubtful that we would be able to remember anything without them. Have you got some particular thing at home that owes its significance to a memory you attach to it?  The objects exhibited here are precisely such vehicles of emotional meaning. Whether banal, unassuming or works of art—one might describe them as remnants, vestiges or relics. For in effect, they bear witness. The objects refer to the unseeable: times lived through, memorable experiences, past locations. They are storage facilities in the sense of batteries or aggregator platforms; stories have been deposited in them, although we don’t realise this at first glance. All the objects assembled in this exhibition are connected with Kolumba. They were brought together by the people who work for the museum—above all, by Stefan Kraus, who has helped to shape the institution as a co-curator since 1991. In 2008, he became its director. The objects belong to the so-called Musée sentimental, a branch of the collection that developed, so to speak, on the fringes of the institution and has grown to 73 items to date.

The Musée sentimental de Kolumba has an important forerunner which is connected with both Cologne as well as Stefan Kraus’ biography. Cologne Kunstverein was the place where Daniel Spoerri and Marie-Louise von Plessen presented their Musée sentimental de Cologne in 1979. At the invitation of Wulf Herzogenrath, the director at that time and later mentor to Stefan Kraus, they installed a temporary museum about the history of the City of Cologne. The exhibits were remnants with the aura of relics fostered by their respective story and the manner of presentation. In alphabetical order from A(denauer) to Z(oo), Spoerri and von Plessen devised a collection of Cologne events, whereby their selection was less indebted to historical relevance than to a wealth of anecdotes. Instead of relaying the grand accounts of important personages, they accumulated small subjective snapshots.

On the occasion of Stefan Kraus’ retirement, we have selected 25 objects from the Musée sentimental de Kolumba. These have been augmented by additional works from our holdings and one work on loan. Together they tell the story of the founding and development of Kolumba, vividly representing what has shaped us and still keeps us alive to this day.

Curated by Barbara von Flüe, Ulrike Surmann and Marc Steinmann

Publication
Le Musée sentimental de Kolumba, with texts by Barbara von Flüe, Ulrike Surmann, Marc Steinmann, Jörg Themann, Katharina Winnekes, and photographs by Pia Bergerbusch and Lothar Schnepf. Design: Bärbel Messmann, 32 pages, numerous illustrations, Cologne 2025, 21 x 14.7 cm, ISBN 978-3-9825800-7-4.