Evidenz on Exhibit. The practice and theory of how museums communicate the aesthetic processes involved in the generation of Evidenz

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Klaus Krüger
• Subject Area: Art History
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 267355980

In cooperation with the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) of the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (SPK), the art historical transfer project of the research group 1627 (BildEvidenz. History and Aesthetics) is investigating the relational meaning structures in exhibits and their presentation in museums and exhibitions. In this process, the research of the group is being applied to the collections and holdings of the Kupferstichkabinett and an analytical perspective developed which allows the creation of the forms and procedures of genuine visual aesthetic Evidenz in the exhibition medium to be examined. The research into this question is especially relevant at present as exhibition practices are increasingly dominated by two contrary positions: on the one hand, an absolutising of the aesthetic value of the objects and, on the other, the new or re-contextualising of objects in ever more elaborate displays. In contrast, there have only been tentative attempts as yet to explain how complexes of meanings, forms of knowledge and Evidenz effects of images in museal presentations are both generated and communicated. In an exemplary exhibition juxtaposing printed works by Albrecht Dürer from the Kupferstichkabinett holdings with works by South African artist William Kentridge, the interplay between the exhibits are investigated with different forms of display to identify how access can be created both to the multiplicity of historical and cultural references of the works and simultaneously to aesthetic experiences in the present. In the subsequent systematic evaluation of this practical trial, concepts and methods are to be developed that not only facilitate an appropriate appreciation and description of the complexity of the images as exhibits, but also the additional dimension of meaning ascription through the dispositif of the exhibition. In this way, this project fundamentally contributes to exhibition theory from the art historical perspective.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants (Transfer Project)
• Application Partner: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin ; Kupferstichkabinett - Sammlung der ; Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Elke Anna Werner