5 April 2021

MKG Hamburg expanded its museum presentations by a magazine-like print folder and videos with curatorial insights into ongoing exhibitions

MKG Hamburg is like many other European museums from time to time in lockdown mode - or not. Opening times or information about closure periods are published at the website of the museum at mkg-hamburg.de. The museum shows currently several interesting exhibitions such as 'The Language of Fashion' (article) which is scheduled fortunately until 31st October 2022 - enough time to include it into a city trip during the next visit of Hamburg. Other exhibitions like 'School of No Consequences' (original Titel 'Schule der Folgenlosigkeit') where visitors are invited to think about topics like sustainability or the own lifestyle, end earlier. For the introduction into the 'Schule der Folgenlosigkeit', curator Friedrich von Borries guides via video (spoken in German with subtitles in English) through the exhibition and shows 'Exercises For A New Life' at some of the 12 exercise stations such as at a photo booth for exploring how we are seeing ourself through portraits respectively through our visual appearance. Among the installations and objects, visitors will find submissions to the 'Scholarship for Doing Nothing'. At the introduction page of the exhibition, videos of the winners with explanations of what's the topic of their scholarship and why for example a media designer tried to produce no usable digital data for two weeks, or why one of the winners will take off her headscarf without commenting the measure at work or in her private life for the duration of a week.

A short introduction into the exhibition 'Schule der Folgenlosigkeit' is also published at the new print edition of the programme for April until June. The programme is printed on paper with the haptic known from classical daily news media but with the hardness of a glossy magazine - only that the paper is velvety rough. The height of the format is extraordinary and becomes comprehensible through the layout for the content (introductions into exhibitions) which is structured after the floors of the museum - Erdgeschoss (1st floor), 1. Obergeschoss (2nd floor), 2. Obergeschoss (3rd floor), as well as chronologically.
Image: In the middle of the folder, the part with the name 'Die Sammlung' starts with the presentation of selected collection pieces from the Erdgeschoss (1st floor). Each floor has two pages such as the 1. OG with text and several images. Curator Dr. Caroline Schröder contributes a text about one of her favorite objects from the 1. Obergeschoss. It begins with the basic information about the foldable 'Airmail Dress' by Hussein Chalayan, the year of creation (1993) and the characteristics of the designer's work. The curator explains that the dress sets two for the designer important topics, communication and migration, into one object. The description of the collection item is continued by a poetic text beginning with the idea it could be the clothing piece of an angel (mediator between heaven and earth) and ends with thoughts about freedom from constraints.