It had to go four months without the Berlinische Galerie. On Instagram one learned all sorts of reasons why Berlin’s state museum has been closed since February. For example, because the director’s schedule is too full or oat milk is scarce. Of course that was fun. Behind the campaign was the artist Cem A.
In truth, the house has been converted to LED lighting for the sake of the environment. Sustainability seems to be a major topic at the moment for the museum, which will reopen on Thursday evening, May 25th.
In terms of resource-saving lighting, with which the individual rooms can now be set in different lighting moods, the house is also starting with a sustainability flourish in terms of content. There are five new exhibitions – and almost all of them focus on nature.
Birgit Rieger is the art editor of the Tagesspiegel and a regular visitor to Berlin’s Landesmuseum.
Both Julius von Bismarck and the artist duo Böhler and Orendt are concerned with the influence of humans on plants and the environment. Bismarck deals with the colonial footsteps of his great-great-great-great-uncle Otto. Böhler and Orendt explain with gentle irony that humans have already wiped out several billion hectares of forest and over 60 percent of all vertebrates.
The exhibition by Nasan Tur is then about targeted launches. His theme is hunting. Tur’s stuffed animals and hunter interviews will be on display for a full year. Longer exhibition cycles and more quiet exhibition operations could be one of the ingredients for more sustainable museum operations.
The permanent exhibition on the upper floor of the Berlinische Galerie with art since 1870 had to be completely dismantled during the light exchange, but is now being shown again as usual. Only a few of the photographic works, such as those by Heinrich Zille and László Moholy-Nagy, were exchanged for reasons of conservation.
The Berlinische Galerie is not reinventing itself with the reopening, but is entering a new era in which museums also have to be measured by their ecological footprint. Go on like this there is nowhere.
I have been working in the news industry for over 10 years now and I have worked for some of the biggest news websites in the world. My focus has always been on entertainment news, but I also cover a range of other topics. I am currently an author at Global happenings and I love writing about all things pop-culture related.
