Outer Space

3 October 2014 to 22 February 2015

A wide open realm of research and projections, outer space has always inspired a sense of yearning and curiosity. What is the origin of the universe? Where do we come from? Is there intelligent life on other planets? These questions spur philosophers and natural scientists, writers, filmmakers and artists, fantasists and visionaries in equal measure. There has always been an intense exchange between culture and science: scientific and technological findings have found their way into the work of artists, while conversely, visionary ideas and designs have inspired science. Outer Space investigates the interface between culture and science in 12 associative chapters that range from space travel artefacts, scientific exhibits and science fiction to the varied ways artists have responded to the subject throughout history.
An exhibition of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn, in cooperation with German Aerospace Center (DLR)
The exhibition is under the patronage of the German Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel.

TARGETS
Photographs by Herlinde Koelbl

31 October 2014 to  11 January 2015

With her new, international art project TARGETS the photographer Herlinde Koelbl deals with military training and the cultural differences that are reflected in the targets used for shooting practice in the different countries.
The exhibition focuses on the unusual topic of targets on which people are trained to be soldiers and prepared for war. Herlinde Koelbl journeyed to military training grounds in the USA, China, Russia, Afghanistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, Norway, Mongolia and many other countries. The photographs show tattered cardboard man-sized silhouettes, plastic dolls riddled with gunshots and metal plates pierced by bullets. At the same time they reveal the different techniques and topographies of war. American soldiers train house-to-house fighting in desert cities created by Hollywood set designers, Japanese militaries prepare for war in unknown territories by passing through surrealistic concrete chasms. Video and sound installations and portraits of soldiers complement the photos. Excerpts from interviews give a personal insight into the situation of soldiers at the world’s firing ranges.
An exhibition of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in cooperation with Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin

African Masters
Art from the Ivory Coast

28 June to 5 October 2014

Starting point of the exhibition is the general consensus among art historians today that in the so-called primitive societies - as indeed in any of the ancient civilisations of the western world - individual masters created unique works of the highest quality. A selection of approximately 180 masks, figures and everyday objects from Ivory Coast and neighbouring countries, created by exceptionally talented artists working in a wide range of fields, sheds new light on the role of the artist in African society. The exhibition sets out to place these outstanding works - created by great artists whose names by and large we no longer know - in an art historical context that is comparable to that of our great masters, from Michelangelo to Picasso.

An exhibition of the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in cooperation with Museum Rietberg Zürich

An Oriental Adventure
Max von Oppenheim and
his Discovery of Tell Halaf

30 April to 10 August 2014

In 1899 the diplomat and archaeological explorer Baron Max von Oppenheim (1860–1946), a scion of the Cologne banking family, discovered the residence of an Aramaean ruler at Tell Halaf. Dating to the early 1st millennium BC, it was the site that first brought the Khabur headwaters region on the modern border between Syria and Turkey to the attention of archaeologists worldwide. Presenting a selection of outstanding archaeological finds that caused a sensation when they were shown in Berlin in 2011, the exhibition brings to life the long-lost world of the Aramaeans. Monumental stone sculptures, fantastical reliefs and precious funerary goods testify to the wealth of the palace at Tell Halaf and other Aramaean residences. Visitors will be able to see the first ever recreation of the famous entrance façade of the Western Palace with the original sculptures. This is complemented by a virtual reconstruction of the entire ancient settlement. Today a replica of von Oppenheim’s iconic façade reconstruction of the 1930s frames the main entrance to the National Museum of Aleppo in Syria.
The exhibition traces Max von Oppenheim’s biography and his lifelong love for the East which sings from each and every one of the lavish oriental costumes and accessories he amassed in his private collection. The exhibition in Bonn is the first to present a sumptuous selection of these collector’s items alongside the spectacular archaeological discoveries. The Tell Halaf finds – destroyed during a night-time bombing raid on Berlin in 1943 and painstakingly restored some sixty years later – tell the story of a 3000-year-old civilisation, but they have also become a poignant reminder of Germany’s recent history. 

Kazimir Malevich
and the Russian Avant-garde

Featuring Selections from the Khardzhiev and Costakis Collections
8 March to 22 June 2014

Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) is one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century. In the West the painter, theoretician and teacher is best known as the originator of Suprematism, an art movement based on pure, non-objective abstraction. But his oeuvre is rooted at the crossroads between abstraction and figuration, between a universal idea of what it is to be human and the declared ambition to create a new world through art. Presenting a wide selection of paintings, prints and sculptures totalling more than 300 works, the exhibition sheds light on the key phases of Malevich’s career, from the Symbolist beginnings through his pioneering abstract works to the figurative paintings of his later years.
Unprecedented in its scope, the exhibition draws on the support from numerous international lenders. It is the first retrospective to present large groups of works from the collections put together by Nikolai Khardzhiev and George Costakis, housed today at the Khardzhiev-Chaga Cultural Foundation / Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki.

Organised by Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany in collaboration with the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Tate Modern, London