SYMPOSIUM: THE NEW 'MUSEUM'?

Thursday, 24 May, 17 h,
Hall of Städelschule, Frankfurt/Main

The Städelschule and its Architecture Class invite to a one-day
Symposium addressing the status and role of the contemporary and future
museum.

The symposium takes place on Thursday 24th of May and is co-hosted by the
Rector of the Städelschule, Prof. Dr. Daniel Birnbaum, and the Dean of the
Architecture Class, Ben van Berkel. It will include a group of distinguished
guests from the international art and architecture milieus.

With the steadily increasing pressure of information flow and capital, the
status and role of the contemporary museum within the arts as well as other
fields are continuously challenged. In the arts, fairs are emerging as
ubiquitous events to inject market interest and social flair. The Guggenheim
and the Louvre have become export items. Museums at large are prompted to
devise new, specific strategies for the dissemination to and entertainment
of visitors via the Internet.

With these changes, is the museum as an institution for archival services
and the mere reification of existing culture is passé? What role and whose
interests will the museum serve tomorrow? Do we need to sift the past from
the present and future in such away that museums become institutions for the
sheer preservation of yesterday¹s treasures? Does the museum as an
institution, as it emerged over the last couple of centuries, still hold
relevance, or should the arts and other fields look elsewhere to formulate a
vital form to present previous periods¹ collectibles and tomorrow's cultural
gems. And for this 'elsewhere,' is the emerging and ever more popular art
fair a good model, its current architectural typology as inspiring as your
average sitcom?

These and other questions are what will be addressed in the symposium, The
New 'Museum'?, which the Städelschule hosts in order to address one of the
more difficult and interesting set of questions that our culture is facing.

Schedule:

5 p.m. Welcome: Daniel Birnbaum & Ben van Berkel

- Art & Architecture
Volker Rattemeyer, Director Museum Wiesbaden
Peter Cachola Schmal, Director German Architecture Museum DAM

- Architecture & Art
HG Merz, architect
Ben van Berkel, UNStudio / Städelschule

- Branding the Museum
Nicolas V. Iljine, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Emily King, Frieze Magazine

- Open Discussion. Moderation: Daniel Birnbaum

No accreditation!

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Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste - Städelschule
Architecture Class
Dürerstr. 10
60596 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
www.staedelschule.de/architecture