MY PERSPECTIVE

We are interested in your perspective on art! What do you see when you are looking at the different artworks presented in the museum? Which thoughts or memories do they trigger? Are there any connections between the artworks and your everyday life? We are seeking the dialogue with you. Your perspectives will enter the work at the museum and will be made visible for other visitors.

With MY PERSPECTIVE the Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Körber-Foundation are developing ideas for a museum of the future. The project MY PERSPECTIVE is set for the long term and constitutes an important step on our path of opening up the museum. MY PERSPECTIVE picks up on the idea of OPEN ACCESS from 2017 and develops it further. 

We are taking the objective of cultural participation seriously and wish to give whoever is interested a possibility to get actively involved. For the opening event of MY PERSPECTIVE, the participants will be mainly art-loving Hamburg citizens mostly belonging to our core audience. What is it that inspires them personally in works and objects of art? What do they wish to know about the works, and how do they want to obtain this information? Do they see the museum as a place for current discussions that they can contribute to?

Three curators of the Hamburger Kunsthalle each have chosen a work from the museum’s collection. The participants will work in three groups in workshops, each on one of these artworks. They will exchange their individual thoughts, questions and interpretations and discuss these together with the curator at the Kunsthalle.

Against the backdrop of the question: »What is meaningful to me about this artwork?«, the participants will choose works from the museum’s depot and decide jointly which of them should be exhibited. The related thoughts and decision-making processes of the participants will be made transparent and comprehensible for other visitors of the museum. The subsequent presentation is conceived to create space for the different points of view held by the group members and curators. In this way, complex considerations and multiple interpretations will surely inspire further discussions.

The group work took place at the Hamburger Kunsthalle from the end of August to end of September 2018. The group results will be presented to the public on 24 January 2019 and will then be on display in the collection galleries until 19 May 2019.

Participants from the circle of Freunde der Kunsthalle e.V. will focus on this work.
The painting belongs to the collection area Old Masters (collection management: Dr Sandra Pisot).

»How greatly the artist illustrated the figures and their communication with each other through gestures and gazes, and especially through the use of different materials! A sumptuously dressed king is seen pointing to himself enquiringly, while the old man is pointing toward the audience.«
Gisela von Osten

»Here, the somewhat aggravated facial characteristics of a king encounter the fearless, stern gaze of an ordinary, barefooted man: an argument over the treasure container?«
Inge Gollnow-Wöhler

»It is the way the two main protagonists are looking at one another that I find particularly striking. I read the powerful man’s facial expression and the gesture of his hand as a mixture of desperation, astonishment and indecisiveness. A solution through words – as opposed to violent conflict – is being sought. Nowadays, this is still a topical issue.«
Manfred Leberle

Participants from the circle of the Chamber of Commerce will focus on this work.
The painting belongs to the collection area 19th Century Art (collection management: Dr Markus Bertsch).

 

Participants from the circle of the Interessengemeinschaft Steindamm will focus on this work.
The painting belongs to the collection area Modern Art (collection management: Dr Karin Schick).

»For me, the bird represents freedom and the male role, the serpent stands for fetters and seduction, and the cat embodies the female element. The woman (Calypso) appears to be fettering the man (Odysseus), wanting to hold him back. But he is already mentally far away and wants to leave. He is lying there like a Pascha, she is turned toward him—to me, a stereotypical portrayal of roles.«
Anke Iris Kirch

»Looking at the painting, my first gaze was drawn to Calypso’s eyes. My gaze then followed hers: via the slightly blue nose to her equally bluish hands.«
Béla Braack

»My first impression was: how can she? … so cold and scheming, giving up everything for him, the warrior. Then the white flesh and along with it his asexuality … goodbye emancipation.My first impression was: how can she? … so cold and scheming, giving up everything for him, the warrior. Then the white flesh and along with it his asexuality … goodbye emancipation.«
Wolfgang Schüler