With this exhibition in the partially reconstructed Thuringian Landesmuseum in Weimar, a building is reclaimed for art after nearly half a century of neglect. It had been inaugurated as one of the early German museums in 1868 and suffered like few others under the ignorance and vandalism of two German regimes. Three years before the planned reopening of the Neues Museum Weimar, this exhibition with the multi-faceted title "nach weimar" (after/to Weimar) offers the chance to experience contemporary art in a 19th century spatial setting not yet defined as a museum, and at the same time to reflect upon the role of the institutions that it will be moving into in 1999. Indeed, precisely the forms of contemporary art increasingly provoke questions with regard to the appropriateness of traditional forms of exhibition within a museum. Here the newly founded museum sought a dialogue with the artists, in the center of whose work stands the reflection on the social conditions of art production. This first exhibition in the Neues Museum Weimar understands itself as an attempt to play out the possible forms of transformation. Its goal is not to present a selection of artists organized around a specific thematic or stylistic category, but rather to offer a free space in which each visitor can come to his or her own questions. Instead of illustrating a theme, a spectrum of varying positions from art of the nineties is shown. The exhibition brings to light not only a productive process of change, but in itself reflects the process of its own coming into being.
Visible or invisible, the human being almost always stands in the center of the exhibited artworks. Here the exhibitions knows no conventional images, no photographs. Additionally, the new video installations have been immediately replaced by new forms. The beams are booming, the internet is being surfed, nomen est modem. However the supposed domination of multimedia innovations is also broken. Constant is only change, the permanent transgression of boundaries of various forms, between art objects, design and video, installation and everyday objects. Art in transition. The starting point of the exhibition was the simple idea of Paul Maenz, whose important collection of art of the 60's, 70's and 80's makes up the permanent collection of the Neues Museum Weimar. The intention of this former gallery owner was to challenge young gallery owners to present their artists and their perspective on the art of the 90's in order to support the future expansion of the collection which has now found its home in Weimar. After a series of discussions between Paul Maenz and members of the museum, the following galleries were invited to participate: Gebauer & Thumm, Berlin; neugerriemschneider, Berlin; Barbara Weiss, Berlin; Wohnmaschine, Berlin; Eigen + Art, Berlin/Leipzig; Christian Nagel, Köln; Schipper & Krome, Köln; ACC,Weimar; Allgirls Gallery, Berlin.
The coordination was given by the galleries to the director of the Berlin Kunst-Werke, Klaus Biesenbach, and to the director of the KŸnstlerhaus Stuttgart, Nicolaus Schafhausen. They conceived a freely curated exhibition and invited artists of their choice in order to bring in positions from outside the gallery system. The goal of these efforts was to overcome barriers and reach a broad cooperation between artists, commercial galleries, independent curators, museums, and collectors. It was clear to all concerned that a good deal of potential for conflict would accompany such an optimistic vision. During the process of preparation the exhibition stood more than once on the brink of collapse. For the museum staff the exhibition represented a substantial risk: they did, after all, allow a new generation to take over the field. The general scepticism, which can be considered normal in a mutual attempt at understanding between different generations, gradually transformed into insight. The exhibition and the catalogue only came into being because all wanted them. Some had to learn to accept the constraints of bureaucratic procedure, appointments, and financial restrictions; grinding their teeth, others had to deal with ever changing conceptions and developments. Instead of research and essays about already present artworks; disks, telephone calls, faxes, and questions about the imminent completion of works dominated the everyday life of the museum. The fast-moving multimedia age competes with an art overtaking itself. In times in which the catalogue is finished before the artwork and a telephone call is faster than a quick fax, it calms the traditional museum staffer when a dynamic gallery owner closes a conversation about technical communications problems with the surprisingly atavistic confession that he or she will "send it by mail".
The process of constant change which left its stamp on the work for this exhibition and provided a wide realm of experience for those who took part, is also in the end detectable in the exhibition and its presentations.
That the exhibition was possible during a time of stringent budget-cuts, is, on the one hand, thanks to various endowments and corporations, and on the other hand, in particular to the responsible archi- tects, firms, and construction workers, who under time constraints organized their work to give this art a guest appearance.
For their financial support we wish to thank the Stiftung Kulturfonds Berlin and the Art Endowment of the Thuringia Ministry for Science, Research, and Culture. A particular thanks is directed to the Hypo-Kulturstiftung which allowed us with a generous grant, despite the unexpected failing of planned funding, to nevertheless print our catalogue. A special thanks also to Dr. Hans Fry and Hans-Dieter Eckstein, Munich, and to Anja Messingschlager, Weimar. For their material support during the preparations, we owe our appreciation to the InterCityHotel Weimar and the Thuringian Telekom.
Our personal thanks to the architect Dr. Lutz Krause, the firm Stuck-Rietschel, the Coreon restoration studio and the Husmann engineering offices, who all showed a great understanding for contemporary art.
Finally we thank the main construction contractor, the Thuringian Endowment for Castles and Gardens, for their understanding in all difficult situations.
Rolf Bothe, Gerda Wendermann