“Kunstkammer of the present”

Modular and flexible: designer Konstantin Grčić created an industrial-looking exhibition architecture for the baroque Fürstengalerie in Dresden’s Residenzschloss. The “Kunstkammer Gegenwart”, which mainly displays works from the Hoffmann Collection, moves between exhibition space and depot. It also provides an insight into the work of the restorers: In an open workshop, visitors can look over the shoulders of Franziska Klinkmüller and her colleagues.

When the Hoffmann Collection was donated to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) in 2018, there was great joy. After all, the collection comprises 1,200 works from the 1910s to the present day, including names such as Rebecca Horn, Sigmar Polke and Jean-Michel Basquiat. However, the donation was also tied to the condition that a new central museum building would not be built. “Erika Hoffmann wanted a dynamic, decentralized model, she wanted people to come into contact with international contemporary art and also gain inspiration for their lives,” explains Marion Ackermann, Director General of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. The idea of creating a “Kunstkammer Gegenwart” in the former princely gallery of the Residenzschloss was born in collaboration with the collector Erika Hoffmann. The foundation was able to win over the renowned designer Konstantin Grčić for the exhibition architecture of the 30-metre-long, narrow room. To give the collection the character of a depot, the owner of Studio Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design opted for industrial elements: “A depot is not about beauty, but about efficiency, which has to be reflected”.

Grcic did not touch the existing architecture. He placed a vertical row in front of a wall covered in red silk, which can support works of art of different sizes and weights: “A very flexible system that you can use again and again, like a construction kit. We create our own material cycle, a kind of parts warehouse.” The color establishes a “kind of default mode”, neutralizes the red of the wall, but also forms an objective background for the art. The black, “rather stately” slate panels of the Fürstengalerie are now covered in black industrial rubber flooring. With such minimalism, the design is “logical, pragmatic, uncompromising”, says the designer. “Aesthetically, it’s a break,” admits Marion Ackermann, “but that’s good for now, because breaks sensitize people.” Konstantin Grčić accentuates this in his own way. He is less interested in staging a break with the spirit of the Baroque per se than in transforming the concept of the Wunderkammer into the present day.

The historical art chambers of the late Renaissance and Baroque periods brought together a variety of objects of different origins and purposes in one place. The Kunstkammer der Gegenwart, on the other hand, which opened in December last year, is more like a shop window that reveals a much larger collection, according to Grčić, and the works are exchanged every three months and enter into a dialog with works from other SKD collections. This year’s guiding theme is “Saving, Remembering, Transforming”. Corresponding key questions are, for example, “What is stored in museums?” or “How do works of art function as memories, as containers for the ephemeral?”. In order to sensitize visitors to the particularities of dealing with the fragile or ephemeral materials of contemporary art, the SKD has set up a show workshop in the Kunstkammer Gegenwart.

Restorers working in front of the public is nothing new. The so-called Operation Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam attracted international attention. The research and restoration of Rembrandt’s work began in a glass chamber in front of the public in 2022. “What is new is that we are deliberately seeking this publicity and using it to communicate conservation aspects of the museum’s work,” says Dorotheé Brill, Head of the Hoffmann Collection. This kind of openness is not yet very common in the field of restoration of contemporary works. One of the pioneers here is a project by Carolin Bohlmann, who heads the Conservation-Restoration of Modern and Contemporary Art department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Together with her team, she carried out a prominent and public restoration of Joseph Beuys’ work “Richtkräfte für eine neue Gesellschaft” at the Hamburger Bahnhof. The show workshop is part of a new mediation concept. “Overall, it is increasingly important for museums to make their activities more transparent and comprehensible to the public, beyond those aspects – such as exhibiting and art education – that are already open to the public,” says Brill.

“We would like to convey how museums deal with contemporary works against the background of the concern to preserve these works in the long term,” explains the collection manager. “What are the work processes involved here? What are the questions that the museum has to ask and answer? Why do contemporary works of art still require conservation or restoration despite their comparatively young age?”
In cooperation with the Technical University of Dresden and the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK), the SKD has developed an approach that actively involves visitors to the Schaudepot. Since February, conservator Franziska Klinkmüller has been guiding visitors through the exhibition. She explains why, for example, works of art made from food are preserved or why some objects may not be dusted.
According to Klinkmüller, the idea for these restoration-specific tours came about primarily through discussions with visitors to the show workshop. At the beginning of the tour, she gives a rough overview of the discipline and explains the special tasks involved in restoring contemporary art. She then introduces the various topics using selected objects.

As examples, she mentions the handling of Eat Art, the care of installation and media artworks, the ageing of plastics, light-sensitive dyes, immaterial properties of artworks and patina as part of the work’s aesthetic. “The interest in observing the work processes and exchanging ideas is absolutely huge,” the restorer sums up. There is also a monitor at the entrance to the show workshop that shows a short film in a continuous loop. Visitors can follow the detailed work steps here. The running film will be supplemented step by step with further completed work steps until the entire restoration can be seen in fast-forward mode at the end. In addition, a short documentary on the projects will provide information on the restoration and conservation processes. This gives the public an idea of the projects even when none of the SKD restorers are working in the show workshop.

Read more: Light, dust and insects are their enemy: antique tapestries are restored at the Royal Tapestry Manufactory De Wit in Mechelen thanks to a self-developed and patented cleaning system.