Hilke Wagner

Day 2: Museums as Spaces for Recognizing Differences

Perspective 4 – 6 November 2021.

Hilke Wagner, Director Albertinum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Dresden, Germany.

Abstract

The Dresden “Bilderstreit.” A Case Study from (East) Germany.

In today’s polarized political climate, cultural producers face a difficult choice. Should they engage with reactionary voices, and risk normalizing them, or should they rather boycott such voices, and risk alienating them further?

The path the Albertinum has taken offers a third possibility: it presents a case study in how arts organizations can win over a hostile public, while remaining true to their ideals. The speaker is convinced that museums are one of the few places where direct encounters between different generations, attitudes, and social groups can still happen. An opportunity that we must seize.

Biography

From November 2014, Director of the Albertinum, Museum of Art from Romanticism to the Present, State Art Collections Dresden.

Exhibitions: Rosa Barba, Taryn Simon, Nevin Aladag, Tino Sehgal; Slavs & Tatars; Kandinsky, Lissitzky, Mondrian, and the abstract constructive avant-garde in Dresden 1919 to 1932; Demonstrationsräume. Artistic exploration of space and display in the Albertinum, Celine Condorelli, Kapwani Kiwanga, Judy Radul, Heimo Zobernig; The Medea Insurrection. Radical woman artists behind the Iron Curtain; A.R. Penck. Ich aber komme aus Dresden. (check it out man, check it out) Ernst Barlach. A retrospective; 1 Million Roses for Angela Davis i.a.[JW1]

2007–2014 Director of the Kunstverein Braunschweig [JW2] e.V.

Curated exhibitions: Javier Téllez, Clemens von Wedemeyer, Rosa Barba, Maria Loboda, Marcel Dzama, Eva Kotátkova, Peter Piller, Pamela Rosenkranz, Natalie Czech, Simon Fujiwara, David Zink Yi, Matti Braun, Susanne Kriemann, Sofia Hultén, Dirk Bell, Cheyney Thompson, Marine Hugonnier, and others.

2006–2007 Head of SITUATION KUNST ([JW3] for Max Imdahl), part of the art collections of the Ruhr Universität Bochum.

2003–2006 Curator of the Kestner Gesellschaft[JW4] , Hanover

Curated exhibitions: Thomas Hirschhorn, Sarah Morris, Santiago Sierra, Chris Ofili, Peter Doig and others.