Category: Contemporary History

NACHRICHTEN–NEWS

Posted on by Eingang Gewerk

Museum for Communication, Berlin

Reuters Kabel

Background

The travelling exhibition »NACHRICHTEN–NEWS« at the Museum for Communication Berlin, designed by gewerkdesign and realised in cooperation of the museum with the Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, takes place on the occasion of the Year of News 2024, in which the 75th anniversary of the dpa and the German Constitution with its Article 5 on freedom of the press are celebrated. In times of fake news and »alternative facts«, it was important to us to familiarise ourselves with scientific and curatorial perspectives on the topic of news, as well as a real inspiration to deal with this topic creatively and bring it into the space.

From news overload to a clear understanding
The spatial set-up of the exhibition is an increasing sorting of the cacophonic news overload that we are confronted with today, resulting in a clear overview and positioning within the diverse media landscape. The prologue is tightly packed with iconic news images in light boxes and on screens, the word “news” is visible in oversized letters in many languages of the world next to, above and below the image clusters, a news ticker runs newsflashes. In the course of the exhibition, visitors attain an ever clearer understanding, which is also furthered by the many hands-on stations. Finally, in the epilogue, a concrete result about what medium ideally suits one’s individual preferences is produced in the Media Match.

A dialogic exhibition concept with high relevance
»NACHRICHTEN–NEWS« has a modular, sustainable and inclusive design and reflects the controversial relationship between the news and its users. The exhibition is dialogical throughout: Visitors are being asked their opinions station by station – in the exhibition space and beyond it, in the social media of the museum. The interactive exhibition is intended to make visitors explore and become conscious of what habits and needs motivate us to choose specific news channels. As one learns in the exhibition, it is today easier than ever to access news from all over the world, however, the general interest in them is paradoxically as low as never before. That is why the superordinate societal, political and media-related contexts in which we live and act are taken into account.

Tasks / Range of Services
Exhibition design and planning, object presentation, hands-on development, implementation planning, exhibition production, project management, exhibition graphics, corporate design of the exhibition

Details

• Duration: 11 October 2024 to
F25 September 2025
• Locations: Museum for
FCommunication, Berlin, then
FFrankfurt and Hamburg
• Client: Museumsstiftung Post
Fund Telekommunikation
• Area: 650 m²

Similar Projects

• On Air! The History of Radio and
FTelevision, Technoseum, Mannheim
• World of Media – Radio Bremen
F75 years, Focke-Museum, Bremen
• Out of Office – When robots and AI
Fdo our work for us, Museum der
FArbeit, Hamburg

Press

• General-Anzeiger Bonn
• Presseportal
• Menschen Machen Medien
• RBB radioeins
• RBB radio3
• Tagesspiegel

Design Process

Project Team

• Jens Imig
• Julia Junghänel
• Victor Reichert
• Sophia Bouveret
• Janine de Souza
• Gabriel Tecklenburg
• Adele Heymann

Exhibition Construction
• Raumsektor, Berlin

Media Design
• Framegrabber Medien, Hamburg

Graphic Production
• Rost: Werbetechnik, Berlin

Photography
© Museum für Kommunikation Berlin
Photos: Vincent Villwock

Blown Away. The Palace of the Republic

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Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace, Berlin

The Glass Flower (deconstructed) © Reginald Richter and Richard Wilhelm

Background

The exhibition “Blown Away: The Palace of the Republic” at the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace, which was designed and realised by gewerkdesign, is based on an approach of many perspectives. It is not a one-dimensional narration but it holds space for different positions and enables the visitors to change the physical standpoint as well as the mental perspective. The museum that is standing on the ground of the former Palace of the Republic offers a space for the memory of, the reflection on and the discussion of the iconic building. The design makes use of the critical potential of the exhibition and transforms it into a spatial kaleidoscope. We have designed an open scenography that is not intended to function like a backdrop but rather like a participative whole with many special solutions.

Relations between the exterior and interior space, past and present
On their way from the exterior to the interior of the building, visitors traverse the traced contour of the Palace of the Republic’s ground plot and thereby get an impression of its former location in relation to the Berlin Palace. Upon entering the exhibition, visitors encounter a large floor graphic showing a reduced city map of Berlin’s centre, on which the ground plots of the Berlin Palace and the Palace of the Republic are both indicated. In a media installation on four stelas with four small screens each, an artistic video blends original film material from the Palace’s era with digitally created motion design.

© Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss, drone recording: Boheifilm

Modular exhibition design enables perspective changes
The main space of the exhibition is not structured in a didactic and linear way, but instead, the visitors can decide freely what to view in which order. Several themed areas are distributed across the space. The components are modular like in a traveling exhibition and have a temporary character. The image of the Palace of the Republic constantly shifts: Objects become visible in varying constellations. In the middle of the room is the so-called Memory Room. Slightly elevated over the surrounding space, it is visually shielded and acoustically dimmed by a curtain hanging from the ceiling that is open at the bottom. Light and protected, it is a podium for the personal thoughts expressed in audio interviews by contemporary witnesses and for the listeners, it is a calm place to internalise and to discuss.

Tasks / Range of Services
Exhibition design, planning and implementation, exhibition production, concept development for the display, project management, exhibition graphics, concept and realisation of the media installation

Details

• Duration: 17 May 2024 to
F16 February 2025
• Location: Humboldt Forum, Berlin
• Client: Foundation for the Humboldt
FForum in the Berlin Palace, Berlin
• Area: 1.290 m²

Similar Projects

• STASI. State Security in the SED
FDictatorship, Berlin
• 100! Universität Hamburg Past and
FPresent, Hamburg

Press

• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
• Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
• Neue Zürcher Zeitung
• Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg
• Sächsische Zeitung
• Süddeutsche Zeitung
• Südwestrundfunk
• Tagesspiegel
• WELT
• Westdeutscher Rundfunk
• Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen
• Die Zeit

Design Process

Project Team

• Jens Imig
• Stefan Rothert
• Birgit Schlegel
• Marlene Schaefermeyer
• Bianca Mohr
• Gabriel Tecklenburg
• Antoine Laurent

Installation
• Riepe Ausstellungsbau
• bbs production & design GmbH

Showcase Manufacturing
• Vitrinen- und Glasbau REIER GmbH

Media Development and Production
• Frank Schültge Blumm
• Crème
• Linon Medien KG

Media Technology
• Eidotech GmbH

Photography
• Christoph Musiol

Museum Forced Labor Under National Socialism

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Media table with a city map of Weimar

Museum Forced Labor Under National Socialism

Background

Our long-time travelling exhibition about forced labour under national socialism, which was shown first at the Jewish Museum Berlin in 2010 and then at six further locations, has now been permanently installed at the former Gauforum in Weimar. This complex of buildings, planned by the Nazis but not completed by them, now houses the Museum Forced Labor Under National Socialism with our exhibition.

A new museum in Weimar
The planning and the development of the newly created museum has been realised under the lead of gewerkdesign. The construction of the functional museum areas, among them the foyer with the cashier’s desk and lockers as well as two public rooms for workshops, was a special challenge in this building. The exhibition extends across several rooms, mainly across the one originally devised as a ceremonial hall. The built-in components of the exhibition densify more and more and turn the atmosphere of the space successively dark and importunate – a contrast that becomes apparent especially against the bulky feel of the hall.

Scenography connects past and present
In five chapters – habituation, radicalisation, mass phenomenon, liberation, damaged justice – the stories of forced labourers are told. The exhibition has in some parts been adapted to the city of Weimar and new content has been added. On an interactive media table with a city map of Weimar, visitors can select audible content and understand what happened in Weimar. In the last room, contemporary witnesses tell their stories at media stations. A large wall painting of a graphically designed timeline shows the development of forced labour and its consequences until today. 

Tasks / Range of Services
General contractor, implementation planning, exhibition architecture, planning and construction of the functional museum areas, project management and consulting, project development, exhibition design and planning, exhibition production, planning of the object presentation, development and production of the hands-on exhibits, media design, exhibition graphics, signage system

Details

• Opening: 8 May 2024
• Location: Museum Forced Labor
FUnder National Socialism, Weimar
• Client: Buchenwald and Mittelbau-
FDora Memorials Foundation, funded
Fby the Foundation Remembrance,
FResponsibility and Future (EVZ
FFoundation), the Thuringia State
FChancellery, and the Federal
FGovernment Commissioner for
FCulture and the Media
• Area: 2,000 m²

Similar projects

• Forced Labour: Berlin, Moscow,
FDortmund, Warsaw, Prague,
FHamburg, Steyr
• Munich Displaced: Munich

Press

• Bauwelt
• Deutsche Welle
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
• Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk
• Mitteldeutsche Zeitung
• ND Aktuell
• Radio Lotte
• Thüringer Staatskanzlei
• WELT
• Die Zeit

 

Design Process

Project Team

• Jens Imig
• Stefan Rothert
• Birgit Schlegel
• Ann-Christin Ahrens
• Julia Junghänel
• Carsten Saalmann
• Johannes Gotaut

Restoration
• Junk & Reich Architekten, Weimar

Installation
• Walther Expointerieur, Coswig
• Gränz Innenausbau, Weimar

Media Production and Coordination
• Jörgen Pisarz, artavi

Audio Production / Sound Recordings
• speak low Krewer & Teichmann GbR

Photography
• Christoph Musiol

Nichts. Nothing. Riens.

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Museum of Communication Bern, Switzerland

Exhibition Poster

Background

The exhibition project “Nichts. Nothing. Riens.” takes on nothing. It casts a light on the small things in life that we otherwise hardly notice. While we normally are concerned with the act of filling, being constantly busy and pursuing something more, this exhibition is an unusual experience of the opposite. A particular challenge for gewerkdesign was to conceive and implement the nothing spatially as well as graphically.

Objects, stories, films, illusionary spaces, waiting rooms, and moments of surprise are associated with the term “Nothing” by integrating everyday observations and situations into the exhibition space. As part of a broad-based research for the exhibition, the exhibits were compiled during a series of workshops and subsequently distributed across the six areas of the exhibition: 1. A Lot of Nothing, 2. The Waiting Room, 3. Nothing for You, 4. All this Nothing, 5. Constructing Nothing, 6. Cinema Stage.

The exhibition architecture is not visible at first glance. It aligns with the architecture of the museum, supplementing it with additional windows, pillars, and doors. A trilingual transponder invisibly and magically guides the visitors through the exhibition set, leading to a filmic show of actors staging bizarre encounters. The exhibition is designed to be sustainable. Its individual elements were economically produced, minimising the overall consumption of resources. Wall panelling, old wine crates, cardboard tubes were recycled from previous exhibitions. The graphics were mainly printed on paper in order to minimise the use of plastic and composite materials.

Our exhibition graphics show several solutions for the special challenge to represent the nothing in an image. Five motifs visualise the nothing that we concurrently bring into the space. In the motifs of our poster series, the nothing becomes visually tangible by staging that which surrounds the nothing: flying newspaper pages, an empty train platform, a staircase into the empty cosmos. In these images, a facet of the charming and probably typical Swiss humor becomes obvious. To say it with the words of the museum: “Is it possible that the nothing is not nothing? The exhibition Nothing goes all-in and shows apparent nothingness in an unusual exhibition. We invite you on a journey with wonderfully surprising encounters – a journey to nothing!”

At 62,000 visitors, the Museum for Communication Bern sets a record in visitor numbers with “Nichts. Nothing. Riens.”. As many people as never before at the MfK Bern have seen this special exhibition.

In the museum shop of the MfK Bern, our posters, a special edition in shape of a collector’s folder (both limited editions) as well as a card game on the topic are available (in German and French only).

 

Tasks / Range of Services
Workshop conception and content, exhibition design and exhibition architecture, exhibition and media graphics, communication design, production monitoring

Details

• Duration: 10 November 2023
Fto 21 July 2024
• Where: Museum of Communication FBern, Switzerland
• Client: Museum of Communication FBern, Switzerland
• ca. 650 m²

Related Projects

• Out of Office, Hamburg
• The future quality of living, FHamburg
• Riots + New Beginnings, Bremen

Press

• BärnerBär
• Bärn Today
• Der Bund
• Museumsfernsehen
• Nau
• Radio Bern
• SRF Kultur
• SRF Tagesschau
• Thuner Tagblatt
• WIRED Italia

Design Process

Project Team

• Jens Imig
• Antoine Laurent
• Bianca Mohr
• Birgit Schlegel
• Gabriel Tecklenburg

Photography:
• gewerkdesign

Interactive Content System:
• iart– Studio für mediale Architekturen, Basel

Multimedia:
• Jean First
• Zita Bauer
• Alexandra Heini
• Kurt Stadelmann
• Franz Szekeres

Film:
• Sibylle Heiniger

Graphics, Layout & Typesetting:
• gewerkdesign

Exhibition Production:
• Patrik Ammann
• Daniel Bucheli
• Arjen Damen
• Giacomo Feurich
• Jean First
• Aurelio Galfetti
• Urs Hochuli
• Coline Jud
• Gratschi Josef Jud
• Theo Kämpfer
• Stefan Käsermann
• Basil Kraus
• Andreas Manecke
• Erich Marty
• Timo Müller
• Stefan Schmidlin
• Jan Stadelmann
• Roland Steiner
• Andri von Moos
• Paul von Moos
• Ueli Zingg

Munich Displaced

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Jewish Museum Munich, München

Munich City Museum

Background

The exhibition project “Munich Displaced” is dedicated to the research of a blank space in German Remembrance Culture: the history of the so-called Displaced Persons (DPs). This term refers to all those foreign civilians who, after 1945, found themselves outside their homeland as a result of the Second World War and were unable to return to it without further ado. The group of DPs is complex and diverse, including political prisoners, concentration camp inmates, civilian Eastern European workers, former forced laborers, and collaborators. The documentation of their history was compiled in a broad research for the city of Munich and edited for two different exhibitions in the city.

With the exhibition “Munich Displaced. After 1945 and without a Homeland”, the Munich City Museum sheds light on the history of this group from a local perspective and shows how these migrants lived and worked in Munich after 1945 with the will to shape their own destiny. With the exhibition “MUNICH DISPLACED. The Surviving Remnant”, the Jewish Museum Munich is focusing on the history of the Jewish DPs in Munich.

A special challenge for gewerkdesign was to conceive and realize two exhibitions at two locations, both graphically and spatially. The exhibitions, which run in parallel, place the history of the DP communities in an interrelated context, which also comes to bear in terms of design, through an overarching graphic and design concept. The two museums on opposite sides of Munich’s Sankt-Jakobs-Platz were connected and put into a dialogue by including the outdoor space in the design. In the Jewish Museum, the exhibition architecture traces the local infrastructure of the Jewish DP communities along Möhlstraße. Exhibition design and graphics of both exhibitions evoke the image of fleetingness and sketchiness. Temporary buildings, staggered or fading dots and letters, abstracted maps, and interrupted lines characterize the aesthetics of both exhibitions and also refer to the work-in-progress nature of the unfinished research project.

Furthermore, the exhibition is designed to be sustainable. The individual exhibition elements were produced cost-effectively, with low overall material consumption. The graphics have been printed predominantly on paper or cotton textiles to keep the use of plastics and composites as low as possible.

Tasks / Range of Services
Exhibition design and architecture, exhibition and media graphics, communication design, production management

Details

• Opening: July 5, 2023
• Where: Munich City Museum, Jewish Museum Munich, Munich
• Client: Munich City Museum, Jewish Museum Munich
• ca. 400 m² und ca. 600 m² m²

Similar Projects

• A Memorial made of Paper: Arolsen Archives, Bad Arolsen
• Our Courage. Jews in Europe 1945-1948, Frankfurt
• Riots + New Beginnings. Bremen after 1968, Bremen

Process

Team

• Jens Imig
• Janine Iser
• Antoine Laurent
• Bianca Mohr
• Marlene Schaefermeyer
• Birgit Schlegel
• Gabriel Tecklenburg

Photography:
• gewerkdesign

Media Design:
Claudius Schulz

Graphics, Layout and Typesetting (Jewish Museum):
vogelfrei design, Lissabon: Claudia Wagner

Exhibition Production (Jewish Museum):
• Thomas Sensburg
• Peter Friedel
• Hasan Güneri
• Sabine Menges
• Lorant Brendea
• wulff & fischer dekorationsbau GmbH, Eschenlohe

Exhibition Production, Technical Team (Munich City Museum):
• Marcus Gora (management)
• Peter Armbrüster
• Ronny Hausmann
• Stephan Juttner
• Bernd Mollenhauer
• Raymond Wetzelaar
• Christian Ziegler

Lighting and Media (Munich City Museum):
• Martin Ries

110 Years of Behrensbau. Architecture and History

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Behrensbau, Düsseldorf

Model of the building by Peter Behrens

Background

Düsseldorf looks back on more than 100 years of German history at a historic building: the exhibition “110 Years of Behrensbau” sheds light on the eventful chronicle of the Behrens Building on the banks of the Rhine, its alternating uses and its famous architect Peter Behrens, which is closely linked to the Mannesmann Group. German economic policy, art and architectural history intersect at this historic site, the latter of which has been significantly influenced by the builder, who is also regarded as an exemplary pioneer of modern industrial and graphic design. However, the exhibition not only focuses on the Behrensbau as a milestone in German architectural history, but also on the future of this unique building. As a contemporary history museum for the House of History of North Rhine-Westphalia, it addresses the democratic, cultural and educational potential of the Behrens Building.
A fundamental motive for gewerkdesign’s work on this project was the concern to design and realize an exhibition as efficiently as possible in terms of environmental compatibility.The construction principles of the preserved exhibition elements of the anniversary exhibition “OUR STATE. 75 Years of North Rhine-Westphalia”, which was designed by gewerkdesign and realized in the Behrensbau in 2021, enabled a resource-saving conversion and reuse for this exhibition. Modular substructures, demountable panel cladding, flexible showcase bases and large-scale dioramas could be adapted, reassembled, clad and furnished for this purpose.
Great emphasis was placed on energy conservation and the use of environmentally friendly materials. For example, the existing panels were used as graphic panels and covered with printed textile, while the physical didactics of the exhibition were designed to allow visitors to experience Behrend’s spatial concept by allowing daylight to illuminate the exhibition spaces, thus saving artificial lighting and energy. Applying principles such as multiple use, low material consumption in production, reusability of individual exhibition elements through minimal redesign, and a design approach that works with, rather than against, the existing architecture of Peter Behrens, the result is an exhibition that is highly sustainable, while creating an impressive exhibition experience visually and spatially.

Tasks / Range of Services
Basic evaluation, exhibition design, exhibition graphics, information graphics, dismantling and reconstruction planning, implementation planning, production management, participation in awarding contracts, construction management

Details

• Opening: May 24, 2023
• Where: Behrensbau, Düsseldorf
• Client: Foundation House of History of North Rhine-Westphalia
• approx. 530 m²

Similar Projects

• OUR STATE. 75 Years of North Rhine-Westphalia, Düsseldorf

Process

Team

• Adele Heymann
• Janine Iser
• Julia Junghänel
• Victor Reichert
• Stefan Rothert

Production
• i.xpo GmbH & Co. KG (exhibition construction)
• Zehnpfennig, Weber & Taylor GbR, Berlin (procurement of exhibits)
• vogelfrei design, Lissabon & Kommunikationskontor, Düsseldorf (graphics, layout and typesetting)
• Tinetronics, Köln & M-Create GmbH, Düsseldorf (exhibition media)
• Radebeuler Machwerk e.K., Radebeul (print production)

Photography
• gewerkdesign

On Air! The History of Radio and Television

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TECHNOSEUM, <b>Mannheim</b>

Historic Microphone

Background

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of German broadcasting in the fall of 1923, the Technoseum Mannheim is presenting an extensive special exhibition on the history of radio and television. In addition to tracing the development of technology and programming and the political role of broadcasting over the past 100 years, the exhibition is devoted in particular to the cultural and socio-historical dimensions of broadcasting history.
The exhibition’s scenographic centerpiece is a frequency band that acts as a physical thread guiding visitors along a vividly illustrated chronological scale through hundred years of radio and television history, literally “broadcasting” it.
It thus functions as an aesthetic narrative and organizing principle at the same time. Along both sides of the frequency band, the history of technology and historic perspectives of the broadcasting audience are staged in a vivid and informative manner. These narratives are divided into five time periods and staged like cabinets according to the epochs.

Acoustically, they are accompanied by a sample of the respective contemporary historical broadcasting highlights. The exhibition design allows visitors to discover the various stages of media history and its social impact in an interactive and audio-visual manner.
Furthermore the design is aiming to be sustainable:
Many exhibition elements, such as showcases, and lighting elements were reused and rearranged, but still conform to a style guide conceived for the exhibition, to which all graphic, cinematic, and digital mediation formats are also subject.

Tasks / Range of Services
Exhibition design and planning, execution planning, project management and consulting, project development, exhibition graphics, general contractor, planning of object presentation, media and information graphics, sound collages

Details

• Opening: November 17, 2022
• Where: Technoseum, Mannheim
• Client: State Museum of Technology and Labour Mannheim, Technoseum
• Size: 850m²

Similar Projects

• Close-Up, Hamburg
• Visitor Centre of the Nuclear Power Plant Gösgen, Gösgen

Design Process

Team

• Jens Imig
• Bianca Mohr
• Antoine Laurent
• Gabriel Tecklenburg
• Birgit Schlegel
• Janine Iser
• Marlene Schaefermeyer
• Yunus Kleff

Production and Mounting
• Team Frankewerk
• Team Messegrafik & Messebau Schreiber

Media
• Peter Imig (sound collages)
• Jörgen Pisarz (media planning and production)

Photograpgy
• gewerkdesign

75 Years of North Rhine-Westphalia – The Mobile Museum

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Exhibition Opening, <b>Aachen</b>

Trimmy, Mascot of the German Sports Federation's "Trimm dich" movement

Background

Following the anniversary exhibition “OUR STATE. 75 Years of North Rhine-Westphalia” at the House of History NRW, the Mobile Museum will tour the state as a mobile exhibition for at least four years. Visitors are invited to take part in writing the history of their state by contributing their own exhibits, sharing memories and entering into dialogue with each other. The interactive museum consists of three modules: the exhibition depot in a high-quality High Cube overseas container, equipment in the form of mobile showcases and hands-on stations, and pop-up elements for in-depth discourse. The centerpiece of the Museum Mobil, however, is the container. It is both an exhibition space and an object itself. With the key visual designed for the project in the national colors and a contemporary interpretation of the coat of arms symbols – horse, Rhine and rose – it also draws attention to itself during the journey from place to place and thus brings the museum into the public sphere. The Mobile Museum’s claim – transparency, openness, animation for participation and exchange – runs through the entire design. Inside the exhibition space, a display case system with varying depths constantly rearranges the collection of exhibits and thus also formally picks up on the dynamic character of the constantly growing archive as well as the diversity of the exhibits and their donors. With the help of specially developed Internet-based software, tablets ensure that the background information on the constantly added exhibits is digitally updated.

Tasks / Range of Services
Exhibition design and architecture, implementation planning, exhibition graphics, media, general contractor, site management, concept development for the display

Details

• Opening: October 2022
• Where: All 53 districts and independent cities of North Rhine-Westphalia
• Client: House of History NRW, State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
• Size: 13 m² + 100 m² outdoor area

Similar Projects

• OUR STATE. 75 Years of North Rhine-Westphalia, Anniversary Exhibition
• Willy Brandt, Traveling Exhibition

Press

• General-Anzeiger
• Presseportal
• Rheinische Post
• Die Zeit

Design process

Team

• Stefan Rothert
• Julia Junghänel
• Gabriel Tecklenburg
• Janine Iser
• Antoine Laurent
• Sinem Özer
• Adele Heymann
• Carsten Saalmann

Production and Mounting
• Team 235 MEDIA
• Team P.O.S. Werbeproduktion GmbH & Co KG
• Team hertzer GmbH
• Team Artdepartment Berlin GmbH
• Team Zehnpfennig, Weber u. Taylor GbR

Photography
• gewerkdesign
• House of History NRW
• Andreas Lange

Establishment of Georgium Palace as the museum of the Anhalt Painting Gallery

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Georgium Palace, Anhalt Picture Gallery, <b>Dessau-Roßlau</b>

Dutch cabinet from the 17th Century

Background

Georgium Palace in Dessau has not always accommodated the Anhalt Painting Gallery. It only moved into the palace in 1959, after being housed in the Palais Reina in Dessau, which was destroyed in the war. The history of the palace and that of the painting collection could not be more different: here a palace, first built as a small summer palace for Prince Johann Georg von Anhalt-Dessau (who gave the Palace its name) and intended for private living, there a collection that grew together from several estates into a great treasure for Dessau as a public collection.

When it was decided to modernize Schloss Georgium and adapt it to the current standards of a painting gallery, gewerkdesign was brought in as a consulting partner for the gallery’s refurbishment in 2014. The result is a museum concept that divides the three levels of the building into different usage concepts: On the first floor, functional rooms such as the checkroom, toilets, a lecture hall and reception await the visitors supplemented by a “historical tour” through the history of the house, the Georgen-garden and the history of the collection. The main part of the painting collection will be exhibited on the 1st floor, while graphic works will hang mainly in the mezzanine. In order to keep the hanging of the paintings in the landmark castle flexible, colored wear walls have been hung on the existing walls, which slow down the climate change from the exterior to the interior and protect the paintings by providing a stable temperature. The furniture of the house is part of a series designed by gewerkdesign. The substructure made of delicately processed metal as well as the colored upholstery of the seats takes up the historical furnishing of the house.

A minimalist sign system guides the way through the house. The thematic division of the rooms is also designed in a restrained manner; the paintings are to be the focus. Each room is given a lettering of the respective period in milled letters. Information on the artistic works can be obtained by the visitors from object signs, which are mounted underneath the wear walls. This ensures the greatest possible auratic effect of the paintings in interaction with the color scheme of the walls surrounding them. The thematic rooms on the ground floor have been equipped with media tables. Interactive stations and hands-on exhibits invite active participation. The corporate design with a strong signet and word brand in black on white or yellow leaves room for the great collection. In the future, further information about the castle and the collection will be available individually via a web-based app.

Tasks / Range of Services
Design and consulting of exhibition architecture and utilization concept, design and planning of thematic rooms, execution planning, exhibition production, project management, hands-on development (media) and production, exhibition graphics, guidance system in the castle, corporate design, design web and webAPP

Details

– Opening: autumn 2022
– Location: Georgium Palace, Anhalt Painting Gallery, Dessau
– Client: Foundation, Office for Culture Dessau-Roßlau
– Size: 1.989 m²

Design Process

Team

• Jens Imig
• Bianca Mohr
• Birgit Schlegel
• Carsten Saalmann
• Thilo Albers
• Julia Junghähnel
• Jens H. Lohmann
• Michael Lorenz, Graphscape (cashier system, media, website)
• Claudia Wagner, vogelfrei-design (illustrations)

Exhibition production and mounting
• Gemelo GmbH (media)
• Tischlerei Carsten Gräubig
• Rost Werbetechnik (print)
• Joseph Hirsch (metal signs)
• Büchner Möbel (furniture)
• Team Falko Riepe (wear walls)
• Janusz Kruszewski (model)
• Paul Göschel (light)

Architecture
• cuboidoo architects BDA

Photography
• Christoph Musiol

OUR STATE. 75 Years of North Rhine-Westphalia

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Exterior view of the Behrensbau (© Stiftung Haus der Geschichte Nordrhein-Westfalen, Axel Thünker)

Window of St. Lambertus Church in Erkelenz-Immerath

Background

That one of the most modern office buildings of its time – rationally built, light and flexibly divisible – would house an exhibition a good 110 years after it was constructed, this is something that architect Peter Behrens probably wouldn’t have thought likely. The design concept’s proposition for NRW’s anniversary exhibition: an environment in which visitors can relax and engage with the exhibition can only be created according to, not against, the original architectural concept. This means that fixtures and signs are allowed to have a temporary appearance – flexible like the former office floors – that lines of sight remain unobstructed and that the path through the exhibition is clear.

Visitors enter the rather sober looking building on the Rhine promenade through a bright green portal. They enter a foyer that even today achieves an “artistic effect … with simple material and simple design” (*1). Elaborating on this idea, a 270° media installation about places and current everyday life in NRW, projected directly onto the marble surfaces below the gallery, sets the mood for visiting the exhibition.

On the 1st floor gallery, large, backlit images fitted into the wall niches introduce challenges which the federal state of NRW currently faces. Following this introduction, these challenges are discussed in the 8 exhibition chapters. The gridded appearance of the images is characteristic for the introduction as well as the subsequent chapters: it provides orientation and marks spatial and thematic changes.

The scenography of the 8 exhibition areas matches their respective narrative focus. For example is the “Danger” area furnished with intersected walls, thus supporting the chapter’s deconstructive atmosphere. The fixtures of each area are of the same colour spectrum – the colour concept comprises a total of 33 different colours – and by this combine information and narrative media with the area’s individual colour and impression. The exhibition is structured by its main texts, printed in the exhibition’s overall colour “luminous green”, the exhibit labels, printed on panels of the areas’ individual colours, and info graphics, which are designed in a consistent style throughout the exhibition. The distinctively gridded image style is also repeated in the exhibition’s key visual featuring the symbols of NRW’s coat of arms. Thus, the exhibition’s historical content is presented in a modern graphic style. Developed in cooperation with the client, the exhibition’s holistic design concept combines space, graphics, and external presentation. It subtly supports the visitors’ feeling of having successfully mastered the challenges of the last 75 years.

*1: from Peter Behrens’ inaugural address, Festschrift Mannesmann Röhren Werke, 1912

Tasks / Range of Services
Commissioned as general contractor for all services, exhibition design and planning, implementation planning, concept development for the display, interior design of the service areas, exhibition production, project management and consulting project development, multimedia design, design and user interface of the media guide, concept and design of the media installation on the front of the building, development and production of the HandsOn-displays, exhibition and media graphics, signage, tactile guidance system

Details

• Opening: 26 August 2021
• Where: Behrensbau, Düsseldorf
• Client: Parliament of North Rhine-FWestphalia
• 1.200 m², incl. service areas ca F2.000 m²

Similiar projects

• 100! Universität Hamburg Past and FPresent , Hamburg
• The Luther Effect , Berlin
• Friederisiko. Frederick the Great , FPotsdam

Design process

Team

• Stefan Rothert
• Jens Imig
• Bianca Mohr
• Janine Iser
• Julia Junghänel
• Yunus Kleff
• Marlene Schaefermeyer
• Antoine Laurent
• Gabriel Tecklenburg

Exhibition production and mounting
• i.xpo, Kaarst

Lighting
• lichttransfer, Berlin

Media production and technical support
• Eidotech GmbH, Berlin
• 235 Media, Köln
• framegrabber GmbH, Hamburg
• Kulturbanause, Berlin

Graphics production
• MegaLab GmbH, Köln
• i.xpo, Kaarst

Showcase set-up
• Zehnpfennig und Weber, Berlin

Typography composition and picture editing
• vogelfrei Design, Berlin

Media editing
• Larissa Blau, Berlin

Translation
• David Ward, Berlin
• Ingrid Dixon, Gloucestershire, UK

Photography
• Christoph Musiol