Opening: Thursday, June 3, 12 p.m.*
Welcome: Felix Heinrichs, Lord Mayor of the City of Mönchengladbach
Greeting: Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Introduction: Susanne Titz, Director Museum Abteiberg
Exhibition talks
real/digital* with Ghislaine Leung 2 p.m.
with the curatorial team – Haris Giannouras, Felicia Rappe, Susanne Titz, Denise Wegener – in the exhibition rooms 1 – 3 p.m.
*Free admission throughout the opening weekend from June 3 to 6
*All events held subject to conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic
INSTITUTIONSKRITIK – DAS MUSEUM ALS ORT DER PERMANENTEN KONFERENZ (J.B.)
As part of »beuys 2021« – a program of exhibitions and events at more than twenty institutions in North Rhine-Westphalia marking the 100th anniversary of Joseph Beuys’s birth – Museum Abteiberg presents two exhibitions that place the Beuys era and the present day in a comparative context. A new showroom features the first presentation to draw on the recently-acquired ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE and conveys the tremendous significance of archival work for the art of the 1960s and ‘70s.
A parallel presentation features a site-specific project that continues the great Mönchengladbach tradition begun with Beuys’s first museum exhibition in 1967: Artist Ghislaine Leung (b. 1980) was invited to shed new, critical light on the museum as institution in 2021.
Linking the two exhibitions are loans from the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo (NL): four drawings Joseph Beuys produced in the course of an interview with Frans Haks in December 1975, in which the artist talks about the museum as an “intermedium” between artist and audience. Beuys’s thoughts were a point of departure and return for the curatorial teams behind both exhibitions, though the two approached the institution of the museum in very different ways. FIU Verlag, a German publishing house, printed and released the conversation between Beuys and Haks in the 1993 volume Das Museum. Ein Gespräch über seine Aufgaben, Möglichkeiten, Dimensionen… (The Museum: A Conversation about its Tasks, Possibilities, Dimensions….). The book is available for purchase in the museum store.
GHISLAINE LEUNG. PORTRAITS
A solo exhibition by Ghislaine Leung displayed at Museum Abteiberg from June 3 to October 24, 2021. The exhibition will comprise of works commissioned by Museum Abteiberg and produced over the duration of a year from 2020-21. This exhibition is curated by Susanne Titz and Haris Giannouras. This information is provided as per the required 600-800 characters and has been edited by Haris Giannouras, Ghislaine Leung and Susanne Titz. Details are correct as of February 2021 and are subject to change dependent on requirements and resources available.
WORKSHOP REPORT ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE (BEUYS)
Museum Abteiberg acquired the ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE – one of the world’s most extensive collections of Fluxus work and related material – in 2017; ever since, museum staff have been taking inventory of this wide-ranging new acquisition and preparing for its long-term presentation and storage. This exhibition offers a snapshot of the tasks at hand while also pointing to a number of questions: How should the collection, archive, and library be preserved, exhibited, mediated, and made accessible to researchers over the long term?
Drawing on the archive’s collection of Joseph Beuys (one of over 50 artists represented), the workshop report tests the Schaumagazin, or display storage, as a new format for Museum Abteiberg. The exhibition is curated by Felicia Rappe and Denise Wegener. Research advisor ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE: Susanne Rennert.
The exhibitions are part of the anniversary program »beuys 2021. 100 years of joseph beuys«, a project of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in cooperation with Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf.
PROGRAMM AT THE OPENING WEEKEND FROM JUNE 3 TO 6
* Free admission throughout the opening weekend from June 3 to 6
* All events held subject to conditions surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic
Thursday, June 3
On-site or online* Artist Talk with Ghislaine Leung, 2 pm
The curatorial team – Haris Giannouras, Felicia Rappe, Susanne Titz, Denise Wegener – will be available to answer questions in the exhibition spaces, 1 – 3 pm
Sunday, June 6, 12 pm
Joseph Beuys: Kunst Kapital Revolution
Philip Ursprung, Professor of History of Art and Architecture at ETH Zurich
Reading
Sunday, June 6, 3pm
“It’s all very mobile in general” – Joseph Beuys and Fluxus
Susanne Rennert, art historian and research advisor ANDERSCH COLLECTION/ARCHIVE
Lecture
Guided tours of both exhibitions
Friday, June 4, 3 pm
Saturday June 5, 11:30 am
Sunday, June 6, 11 am and 2 pm
Julia Kasten