HONEY, I REARRANGED THE COLLECTION
Deutsche Bank is a partner of the newly opened Hamburger Kunsthalle

Let there be light: Not long ago, visitors entered the Hamburger Kunsthalle through a dark corridor. Following extensive renovations, they now go in through a spacious, light-flooded lobby with a view of the Alster River. But the main benefit of the refurbishment of the Kunsthalle is that now it has 500 square meters more presentation space. As a result, the permanent exhibition comprising some 80 works could be increased to more than 800 exhibits. At the museum, visitors can experience 700 years of art history, from medieval altars to current artistic positions. Deutsche Bank, one of the Kunsthalle’s partners, sponsored the exhibitions The Feminist Avant-Garde of the 1970s and WHEN THERE IS HOPE.  Following the reopening, the bank is involved in two projects: the two-part exhibition Drawing Rooms and the new collection presentation HONEY, I REARRANGED THE COLLECTION. Curator Brigitte Kölle took the latter title from a series by the concept artist Allen Ruppersberg – ironic drawings and statements on attempts to bring order to art. Kölle’s newly arranged contemporary art collection revolves around the topic of “The Magic of Things. Perfidious Objects.”

In spite of increasing digitalization, our daily routines are still strongly influenced by objects. Things, everyday items, goods, and status symbols characterize our lives. In sections such as “The Secret Life of Things,” “The Things as a Commodity,” and “Order and Meaning,” the exhibition tells the story of different relationships between people and things. The spectrum ranges from Andy Warhol’s Campbell's Soup Cans to Andreas Gursky’s photograph of a seemingly endless garbage dump in Mexico. Whereas Warhol’s soup cans stand for standardized mass production in a consumer society, Gursky calls attention to the ugly drawbacks of the seductive world of goods. No one captures perfidious objects as well as Anna and Bernhard Blume. Their five-part work Küchenkoller shows a woman threatened by potatoes that are flying through the air. Chaos conquers the middle-class home.
 
The exhibition Drawing Rooms shows how the medium of drawing is delving ever deeper into the third dimension, conquering space, and being set in motion in animations. While the first part illustrates the development from the 1950s to current positions, starting in December the second part will focus on wall drawings, installations, and virtual animations. Among the highlights of the exhibition are Hanne Darboven’s construction drawings made in late-1960s New York in which the city’s high-rise architecture is inscribed. Carolin Jörg and Michael Fragstein represent current tendencies. Their project Der Zweite Blick (A Second Look) shows how computer technology has revolutionized the medium of drawing. Abstract ink drawings not only hang in frames on the wall, but also start to move on the screen of a tablet, or are accompanied by sounds. Such topical works are no longer shown exclusively in museums and galleries, but also on Internet platforms such as “Lines Fiction” on which artists can present their drawings and animations online.

HONEY, I REARRANGED THE COLLECTION
#1 The Magic of Things. Perfidious Objects
4/30/2016 – 1/29/2017

Drawing Spaces. Positions of Contemporary Graphic Works
Part I: 4/30/2016 – 10/30/2016
Part II: 11/25/2016 – 5/21/2017

Kunsthalle Hamburg