Agenda

One of the many unanswered questions in art is the one relating to its origins. The discovery of Palaeolithic cave paintings towards the end of the 19th century radically changed views concerning the beginnings of art.

The exhibition (Art of Prehistoric Times – Rock Paintings from the Frobenius Expeditions) presents a number of these paintings.

The German anthropologist Leo Frobenius (1877-1938) and his team copied prehistoric rock art in the first half of the twentieth century.

On show are around 120 copies of original paintings, some of them several metres long, produced by Frobenius’ team of artists between 1913 and the 1950s.

The exhibition also looks at the impact that the rock paintings (that means their copies) had on modern art.

In the 1930s, Charlie Chaplin was one of the very few film-makers who questioned Adolf Hitler and his party’s legitimacy and the threat they posed to the world.

Working on a satire of Nazism and the persecution of Jews on the eve of World War II was very brave indeed: Chaplin faced financial and political pressure and financed the film alone, against all odds – simply because he felt compelled to defend the oppressed.

When the premiere was held in New York on 15 October 1940, the United States had not yet entered the war. In most European countries, the film was not released until after the Second World War or even after 1989.

The show features unpublished on-set photos and sheds light on the context in which the movie was made, produced and distributed.

The trilingual exhibition (in English, French, and German) features behind-the-scenes footage, scenes of Chaplin directing his actors, deleted scenes, and stories behind the special effects used in the film.

These insights into his filmmaking process also show how his studios operated and reflect the team’s historical research.

After the division of Germany in 1949, design and everyday culture went their separate ways on both sides of the border. In the West, design became a driving force in the »Wirtschaftswunder«, while in the East it was absorbed into the socialist planned economy.

More than thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989), the exhibition (German Design 1949–1989: Two Countries, One History) presents the first overview of post-war design in the two Germanies.

The show will offer a comparative selection of design from East and West Germany and explore ideological and aesthetic differences as well as parallels and interrelations between East and West.

Exhibits range from iconic pieces of furniture and lamps to graphic, industrial, and interior design to fashions, textiles, and personal ornaments.