GHETTO CENTRAL EUROPE: THE GRAVITY OF CONTEXT

Between 1972 and 1996, the Kunstmuseum in Bochum, West Germany, became an unlikely centre of Czech, Czechoslovak, and even Central European culture. The director of the institution at the time, Petr Spielmann, an art historian from a well-known Jewish Czech-German family, an emigrant by fate, a European by nature, was responsible for this. Spielmann first worked here as a curator and began to actively think about the concept of the institution, which is regional, in the true sense of the word community, yet has a global reach, under the leadership of his predecessor Peter Leo. The culmination of his efforts was the founding of the Kemnade International ‘festival of foreigners’ (1974) and the opening of the new museum building (1983), whose architects were the famous Danish Louisiana architects Vilhelm Wohlert and Jørgen Bo. The flowing space, which is not divided into exterior and interior, public and private, naturally incorporates places of study and contemplation, a library with a study room (its design, incidentally, was developed by another Central European, Terry Haass), the Forum social hall and places of active entertainment, a space that is inherently understood as creative, a legend in its own right. The collection that Spielmann and his colleagues have created here is now receiving a critical appraisal.

As was the case with the first edition of the SEFO Triennial (2021), it now includes a historical probe that gives contemporary progressive work a solid foundation. And it is also the impetus for the launch of a new research and educational project that the Olomouc Museum of Art will tackle in the coming years, in preparation for the opening of the new exhibition building of the Central European Forum, designed by Jan Šépka. CEAD: New Media Museums is thus succeeded by a reflection on institutional policy and collection practice. Spielmann’s conception of Central Europe as an integral part of the European cultural tradition, the understanding of the artwork as the final ‘monument’ and the desire to develop the museum institution as an open platform, as a public space, is a stimulus for SEFO to rethink its own position and social role. 

SEFO SPECIAL GUEST: KUNSTMUSEUM BOCHUM

The Kunstmuseum Bochum is thus becoming a key partner for SEFO, which will be reflected, among other things, in the work with the permanent exhibitions of both museums. Within the framework of the SEFO 2024 Triennial, the Olomouc Century of Relativity is substantially transformed – as a different monument of itself. Its activation is due to the inclusion of works by Josef and Anni Albers, Joseph Beyus, Terry Haass, Cornelius Kolig, Herbert Kaufmann, Kazimir Malevich, Louis Nevelson, Serge Poliakoff or Wladyslaw Strzeminski, among others. In addition, Toyen, Josef Šíma, Jiří Hilmar or Terry Haass is returning home.

UNIVERSUM SPIELMANN: PETR SPIELMANN ON THE ROAD BETWEEN BRNO AND BOCHUM

The reinstallation is accompanied by an archival exhibition accompanied by a pair of original film productions, which situates central European art in the context of Spielmann’s philosophy. Through it, we enter the ‘scene of the crime’, Spielmann’s study, his imaginary head, and meet his family, including Oskar and Paul Spielmann, his lifelong friends and role models, including Jan Amos Komenský, Karel Čapek and Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. We become emigrants by choice; our life is a Perec’s puzzle, each piece of which represents a small fortune.

Institution as monument, personality as monument, work as monument – is this the right time to rethink any (or all) of them? Can they inspire us in any way? Or else: Can we do without them? 

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