Annual media conference 2017 Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee successfully together on the way
2016 has been a very successful year, with many highlights and some fundamental changes. Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee held their first joint exhibition under the auspices of the new umbrella foundation. New director Nina Zimmer will take both museums forward. A packed schedule for 2017 promises a great many exciting events.
A new structure, a new start
2016 was particularly eventful for Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee alike. The two museums
entered into operational amalgamation; a new business model was implemented successfully.
Eighteen months after these changes were initiated, it is clear that the process has gone well: both
museums are on course, and successfully integrated under one director. Visitor numbers for 2016 were
significantly higher than for the previous year.
On 1 August 2016, Nina Zimmer took up her post as artistic director and head of the new four-strong
management team. Various divisions and departments have been successfully adapted and restructured to
implement the new umbrella foundation's strategic goals in a number of areas. The changes have produced
highly satisfactory gains in terms of efficiency and synergies alike.
In the words of Juerg Bucher, President of the Umbrella Foundation, Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee: ‘Setting highly ambitious goals, the strategy required Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee to become two great beacons on the national and international art scene. Everyone involved has fully grasped the strategic orientation; those in charge have shown deep commitment and have been highly motivated to deliver. Everyone is visibly proud to have embarked on this journey together.’
Looking back: Exhibition successes, 2016
Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee successfully embarked on their journey together and most
skillfully proved their ability to cooperate with each other. One such successful event was the joint exhibition
Chinese Whispers, which featured significant parts of the Uli Sigg Collection. In conjunction with Chinese
star artist Ai Wei Wei's personal visit to Bern, the exhibition brought around 120,000 visitors to the city and
prompted a strong media response.
Other highlights in 2016 were, at Kunstmuseum Bern, 'Modern Masters', earlier this year, as well as two current exhibitions, 'Liechtenstein. The Princely Collections' and 'Ted Scapa'. Meanwhile, currently on display at Zentrum Paul Klee is the top-class exhibition 'Paul Klee and the Surrealists' in cooperation with Centre Pompidou, in Paris, France.
Looking ahead: Schedule of events, 2017
2017 will see Bern's two major art institutions collaborating even more closely. In the words of Director
Nina Zimmer: ‘What matters is that the two museums should retain their respective identities to evolve
and progress their respective artistic strengths and focal areas. With regard to Kunstmuseum Bern, its
cooperation with other institutions will enable Swiss art to feature prominently in highly visible exhibitions.
Meanwhile, Zentrum Paul Klee will focus on Paul Klee's international resonance even beyond Europe.’
The most important exhibition project in 2017 will be another substantial joint exhibition by Kunstmuseum Bern and Zentrum Paul Klee: 'The Revolution is dead. Long live the Revolution! – From Malewitch to Judd, from Deineka to Bartana'. The show will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Russian Uprising in October 1917, taking as a point of departure Russian Avantgarde art and its radical abstraction that revolutionised art history. The exhibition also addresses the figurative traditions in the Russian Avantgarde and Socialist Realism, with their emphasis on Socialist heroes and everyday life in Socialism. The show critically examines these artistic idioms, and traces their influence in even the most recent contemporary art, for example in Yael Bartana. As usual, the exhibition will be accompanied by a number of fringe events.
Another highlight of next year will be the exhibition ‘10 American Artists: After Paul Klee’. The exhibition 10 American Artists illustrates the impact of Paul Klee's work on mid-twentieth-century U.S. art, belong the artists names such as Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, Mark Tobey and others – were inspired by Klee's artistic concepts and practices. This is the very first substantial show to explore Klee's influence on U.S. artists of that period. In cooperation with the Phillips Collection, Washington D.C..
In October 2016 Kunstmuseum Bern announced that it will receive a long-term loan of the collection entrusted to Hahnloser/Jaeggli Foundation. Listed in Switzerland's register of cultural assets of national importance, the collection constitutes a valuable extension to the museum collection. It features works by Edouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Odilon Redon, Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, Felix Vallotton and Giovanni Giacometti. From August 2017 until March 2018 an exhibition will run under the title: 'Desire makes everything blossom ... From van Gogh to Cézanne, Bonnard to Matisse – The Hahnloser Collection'. The stunning show will feature works from the Hahnloser/Jaeggli Foundation alongside numerous loan works by illustrious artists.
Another exhibition will be dedicated to American performance, sound and conceptual artist Terry Fox, whose performances and works with sounds and symbols made a deep impression on fellow artists such as Joseph Beuys, Vito Acconci, Dennis Oppenheim and Bill Viola. The solo exhibition at Kunstmuseum Bern, created in cooperation with Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and Von der Heydt-Museum Museum Wuppertal, Germany, takes a fresh look at Fox's complex oeuvre to re-discover his many videos, photographs, drawings and objects.
At Zentrum Paul Klee, research, music, literature and Fruchtland will continue to play significant parts. The successful series of Master Concerts – Meisterkonzerte will feature Canadian virtuoso pianist, Angela Hewitt, as well as star pianist, Fazil Say and cellist Nicolas Altstaedt. A key event at Zentrum Paul Klee will be the year-long exhibition, 'Should all be known? Paul Klee. Poet and Thinker'. The show will take a fresh look at Klee the painter, who was also a poet, word acrobat, philosopher – and much more besides. A wide range of fringe events – readings, guided literary tours and philosophical panel talks – will accompany this major exhibition.
Contact:
Maria-Teresa Cano, Head of Communication and Public Relations Kunstmuseum Bern – Zentrum Paul Klee , T +41 31 359 01 89
