MuseumsJournal: Corona Issue
Lace Viruses Doilies Featured In Kulturprojekte Berlin’s Special Coronavirus Edition
MuseumsJournal: Corona Issue
artists, museum directors, curators respond to the corona crisis
On around 100 pages, the special edition "Corona Issue" from the MuseumsJournal is dedicated to the historically unique cultural shutdown of the Berlin museum landscape. 26 Berlin museum directors report on their experiences and concerns, but also on possible perspectives and long-term effects of the crisis. These contributions are framed by topics on challenges in cultural tourism, forays into contemporary art positions inspired by Corona, an insight into current tendencies in mediation work and the ever-present question: What are new digital offers able to achieve?
The magazine asked nine people in charge of cultural institutions in Berlin: What does Hermann Parzinger, as President of the largest German cultural institution, say about the crisis? What did General Director Hartmut Dorgerloh say about the opening of the Humboldt Forum? Anja Schaluschke, Director of the Museum for Communication, reports on digital strategies as part of sustainable museum work. Stephan Erfurt, CEO of C/O Berlin, describes how a privately run hotel is dealing with the crisis. Burkhard Kieker, Managing Director of visitBerlin, outlines how the once very productive interaction between culture and tourism is currently taking shape. Another 23 directors report, including Hetty Berg from the Jewish Museum, Thomas Köhler from the Berlinische Galerie, Holger Happel from Berliner Unterwelten eV,
Illustrations of international "(corona) art" run through the entire magazine. The photographer Friederike von Rauch captured a photographic snapshot of this unusual, rigid emptiness in four museums, including the Altes Museum and the Georg Kolbe Museum, with her photo series “Fundstücke”. In an interview, the artist, doctor and psychoanalyst Clemens Krauss explains what psychoanalysis and art can achieve in a crisis, based on his online performance project "Isolation Consultation".
The changing resonance of the "Doilies" series
Artist Statement by Laura Splan for Museum Journal: Corona Issue
The Doilies series (2004) that I created in response to the first SARS coronavirus pandemic has taken on a broader resonance with a wider audience in light of the current COVID-19 global crisis. Many of the of the original conceptual intentions of the project still easily emerge, however, with “shelter in place” policies and pleas from medical professionals for the public to “stay home”, the relationship between our biomedical status and our domestic circumstances has never been more crucial. Craft has also played a prominent role during the pandemic as people seek solace in new pastimes with hand-made projects including mask making efforts. Inquiries into the “domestication” of the biomedical landscape are more relevant now than ever! ~ Laura Splan, April, 28, 2020
