The public museum as a monument

A contribution by Dr. Andrea Lissoni

artistic director of the Haus der Kunst in Munich

Impulse lecture within the framework of the symposium
Yesterday. Today! Tomorrow?
From the museum of late modernism, its history and its future, monument protection, the “third place” or climate box versus climate crisis.
Part I, April 21 + 22, 2023
Good Spirits, Bad Spirits: Facing the Stories of the Kunsthalle

Photo of a large building made of stone. The stone staircase in front of it leads to a veranda-like area, above which a roof is towering on massive columns.
Front view oft the Haus der Kunst in Munich

The public museum as a monument

Haus der Kunst is a contemporary art institution without collection inhabiting a monumental building whose identity swindles between many layers of memory, a past and a recent history, and the daily unfolding of a programme projected towards the future.

In the historical moment when public monuments are dramatically challenged, and bridging the recent past with the present-future of Haus der Kunst, the lecture shares the question: can a public art institution represent the ideal transforming and transformative monument?

A lawn with a few trees in front of a white stone building. From the center of the picture a water mist spreads over the scene.
Fujiko Nakaya "Mist Life" installation view, Haus der Kunst, 2022, Photo: Andrea Rossetti
In the photo there are huge red balloon flowers and green leaves behind a row of trees. They are attached to the roof of a large stone building with columns.
Art installation "Flowers Inflatable" by Paul McCarthy, 2005, in front of the Haus der Kunst Munich

You can watch the recording of the entire talk here.

Middle aged white man with curly gray hair. He stands in an open shirt and t-shirt with folded arms in a showroom.
Dr. Andrea Lissoni

Andrea Lissoni, PhD, is since 2020 the Artistic Director of Haus der Kunst, Munich. Based on transdisciplinary approach in which all strands are deeply connected, his programme for Haus der Kunst started in April 2022. Previously he was Senior Curator, International Art (Film) at Tate Modern, London, and Curator at HangarBicocca, Milan. At Tate, he initiated and co-curated new exhibition formats such as the 2017 and 2018 live exhibition, collection presentation, and live program at the opening of the new building in 2016, and curated Philippe Parreno’s 2016 Turbine Hall Commission and survey exhibitions on artists Joan Jonas and Bruce Nauman.

His research addresses liveness, cinematic aspects in time-based artworks, the perception of time, and forms of transmission, exchange, and engagement in contemporary art. He explores these through transdisciplinary approaches to exhibition design, focusing on artistic contexts in non-dominant cultures and subcultures, including music and sound in particular.

Further blog posts related to the architecture symposium

The symposium is sponsored and supported by:

Black and white logo, the name of the institution flush left and the coat of arms of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia flush right.
Black and white logo, a black rectangle in which the name of the organization is written in capital letters.
Foundation logo, in green is written on the left in capital letters B & A with a circle around it. To the right is the foundation name written out in capital letters.

Gallerie

The advertising poster of the Architecture Symposium with writing in the bottom left corner: Part 1, April 21 + 22.