The Wende Museum is thrilled to announce that their doors open once again on May 1 with new and responsive safety protocols in place. Visitors will soon be able to experience our interior exhibitions as well as garden installations, all of which have been extended through Oct. 24.
On view now in the Taschen Family Gallery, Transformations: Living Room -> Flea Market -> Museum -> Art examines how a political watershed moment, the fall of the Berlin Wall, initiated a radical change in the perception of art and culture.
The show presents the metamorphosis of objects from everyday life through discarded flea market items to museum pieces, where they finally become sources of artistic inspiration. Transformations includes materials from the Getty Conservation Institute as well as works by contemporary artists Chelle Barbour, Ken Gonzales-Day, Farrah Karapetian, Richtje Reinsma, Daphne Rosenthal, Jennifer Vanderpool, and Bari Ziperstein.
Proving that photography is no more objective than any other medium, two West German photographers with the same mission, Thomas Hoepker and Harald Schmitt, offer divergent views of East Germany, where they were stationed by Stern magazine following the first official bilateral relations between the two German states.
Working in the GDR years apart, both photographers chose similar subjects, as if they had contributed to the same storyboard about politics, culture, and daily life in East Germany. Presented in the Wende’s West Gallery, See Thy Neighbor highlights Hoepker and Schmitt’s different approaches to documenting East German society.
Earlier this Spring, the Wende Museum opened its garden for self-guided tours of Common Fantasy and Relics of the Cold War. This part of the museum campus will remain open to all who make a reservation to visit the interior exhibitions.
Following a period of expanded online activity and cultivation of a global audience, the Wende will bridge the physical and digital experience with continued virtual programming. Visitors to the museum will be able to utilize the virtual tour as an overlay with supplemental video, resources, and instructions to a virtual scavenger hunt challenge, with winners eligible to receive museum shop gift certificates.
“After a year of digital experimentation and online connection, we are thrilled to welcome back friends of the Wende, both new and old,” says Justinian Jampol, Executive Director of the Wende Museum. “Beginning on May Day, visitors can look forward to experiencing all that is wonderful about the Wende, including the latest exhibitions, garden installations, and of course, gathering with community through the transformational experience of art and history.”
The Wende Museum will be open Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. with reservations now available through May 31. Free, advance reservations are required.