Changing society, globalization and the increasing significance of the media present museums of the twenty-first century with constant new challenges. The role of the museum as a public space demands perpetual redefinition, and communication as well as mediation play an accordingly important role.
“This is reflected in various formats in the institutional, but also in the non-institutional area. Relevant mediation work of the present no longer caters solely to an educational elite of experts, but addresses a substantially broader public”, explains MMK director Susanne Gaensheimer.
With a chapter entitled “Museum Public”, the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst event series “MMK Talks” will now continue with a closer look at how these new challenges affect a museum of contemporary art. This year once again, the “MMK Talks” were conceived jointly by the MMK and the Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule.
Wednesday, October 26, 7 pm, MainTor
The Global Museum
The major museums are expanding and opening branches all over the world, for example the Guggenheim in Bilbao or the Louvre in Abu Dhabi. What are the consequences of such franchising and the exportation of museological competence to new “markets”? Will art become more international and more diverse, or will it assimilate globally? How important is it to respond to these developments by strengthening national and regional networks?
Guests: Tobias Berger (Curator M+ Museum for Visual Art, Hong Kong), Penelope Curtis (Director Tate Britain, London)
Moderation: Peter Gorschlüter
Tuesday, November 29, 7 pm, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst
The Museum as Publisher
Increasingly, artists and museums are taking over the role of publisher and mediator of their own production. Alongside classical forms of distribution, the Internet and social media are becoming ever more significant, thus defining new publics.
Guests: AA Bronson (Artist and Publisher, New York), Hu Fang Creative (Artistic Director, Vitamin Creative Space, Beijing / Guangzhou), Laura Wright (CEO of Tate Enterprise , London)
Moderation: Peter Gorschlüter
Tuesday, December 13, 7 pm, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst
Public/Private
Owing to changes in economic and societal structures, the relationship between private commitment and the public education mandate has also undergone transformation. What role does art patronage play today? Do private collectors and the ever more frequently established collectors’ museums have any influence on the mediation of art and the development of “trends”? What are the consequences for the museum as a public institution?
Guests: Harald Falckenberg (Collector, Hamburg), Robert Fleck (Director Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn), Olaf Nicolai (Artist, Berlin), Rosa Schmitt-Neubauer (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, Head of Demission “contemporary art”), Olaf Nicolai (Artist, Berlin)
Moderation: Susanne Gaensheimer
Tuesday, January 17, 7 pm, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst
The Museum as Producer of Social Reality
The museum as a place for the preservation and presentation of art is developing into an institution, which not only mirrors society but also produces societal realities to an ever increasing degree itself, and thus inscribes itself into the social context of its respective urban environment. Its production can take place anytime and anyplace, is no longer tied to a building or specific opening hours, and seeks its public and themes outside institutional boundaries.
Guests: Claire Bishop (Art Critic, New York), Phil Collins (Artist, Berlin)
Moderation: Nikolaus Hirsch
Tuesday, January 24, 7 pm, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst
The Artist Museum
Since the advent of modernism, artists have addressed themselves again and again to the question of what constitutes a museum. What role does the museum play in the definition and mediation of art, how does it change their significance, what makes up a collection? Artists who investigate such matters and develop them further with their work will discuss these questions and talk about the relevance of the museum for contemporary art.
Guests. Thomas Kellein (Director Chinati Foundation, Marfa Texas), Pedro Reyes (Artist, Mexico City)
All “MMK Talks” are conducted in English. Only “Public/Private” will be held in German.
A collaboration between MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst and Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule.
The MMK Talks are generously supported by the Deutsche Bank Stiftung and the Freunde des MMK.
MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst
Domstraße 10, 60311 Frankfurt am Main
www.mmk-frankfurt.de
Image: MMK Talks 2011. Photo: Axel Schneider.