smow blog compact: Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden Presents Parts of a Whole. Stories from the collection of the Kunstgewerbemuseum

By way of an addendum to an addendum to our 5 New Design Exhibitions for March 2015 post, until June 21st the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden is presenting the exhibition Parts of a Whole. Stories from the collection of the Kunstgewerbemuseum.

When Tulga Beyerle took over as Director of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden at the beginning of 2014 she announced her intention to stage a winter exhibition in Dresden city – the Kunstgewerbemuseum museum itself is based a little out of town in Schloss Pillnitz, an idyllic Baroque palace on the banks of the Elbe, and an building which for conservatorial reasons is closed in the winter months.

With the winter exhibition Tulga Beyerle hoped to not only extend the Kunstgewerbemuseum’s programme but also as she told us, “re-introduce Dresden to the Kunstgewerbemuseum”

Parts of a Whole. Stories from the collection of the Kunstgewerbemuseum is that exhibition in Dresden city. If in spring rather than winter. That’s not a criticism, rather approval, as it means the exhibition is still running when the Kunstgewerbemuseum re-opens in May thus allowing a seamless linking of the two exhibitions and the hope that having been “re-introduced” in the city the good folk of Dresden will then travel to Schloss Pillnitz. And that those from outwith Dresden, and who discover the Kunstgewerbemuseum through the exhibition, will be motivated to cross the Elbe to the museum’s principle residence.

Hosted in and by the so-called Kunsthalle in the Lipsiusbau, Parts of a whole continues the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden’s exploration of their own collection in terms of scale, scope and contemporary relevance.

And if we’re honest, that is about all we really know for sure.

Apart from that it also features a copper crab shaped Menuki. And that according to the press information, Parts of whole will seek to explore the relationship between the whole and its component parts as exemplified by nine thematic fields and promises an exhibition design far removed from objects on pedestals. What that means in practice can however only be fully ascertained by viewing it.

Which we haven’t.

We had intended to be in Dresden for the opening of the exhibition and post a review. Fate however had other plans for us. As so often.

However reading between the lines and knowing what we do about the development of the Kunstgewerbemuseum Dresden under Tulga Beyerle we would expect a museal experience far beyond the much more traditional, Baroque and Classicism heavy exhibitions to found elsewhere in Dresden, an exhibition which through a focussed juxtaposition of historical items from the collection with contemporary objects and contemporary social, cultural and design themes further underscores both the relevance of the Kunstgewerbemuseum and its resurgence of late, and also an exhibition well worth visiting.

We’ll let you know once we’ve seen it.

Or should anyone view it before us, do please let us know what you thought.

Parts of a Whole. Stories from the collection of the Kunstgewerbemuseum runs at the Kunsthalle in the Lipsiusbau, Georg-Treu-Platz 1, 01067 Dresden until Sunday June 21st.

Full details can be found at www.skd.museum/kunstgewerbemuseum

A Menuki in shape of a crab, unknown artist, Japan, before 1884 (© Kunstgewerbemuseum, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Photo: Hans-Peter Klut)