Ehe first challenge for the visitor is to find the entrance. From the glass entrance door of the former Galeria Kaufhof on Mönckebergstraße, a pictogram points to the descent to the main station about 70 meters further. Down there is another glass door that once led to the food section.
Here, the first graffiti by street artist Banksy draws attention to the lettering “Hotel Entrance”. An arrow points to the door of the “Walled Off Hotel”, to the right is a monkey in a red pageboy costume. “The Mystery of Banksy – A Genius Mind” begins in the reconstructed hotel lobby of the real artist hotel in Bethlehem, an elaborate tour through several rooms that leads through his work – based on 150 replicas.
“It’s not art, it’s a form of entertainment”
The show is trendy. Large exhibitions are increasingly doing without original works of art and are increasingly taking place outside of museums. The reproduced art is presented in analogue or digital form – sometimes more, sometimes less close to the original. But the show itself always becomes an event. Current examples in Hamburg: In the basement of the former Galeria Kaufhof, the “Banksy” show will be a guest from this weekend until October 4th – with exhibits ranging from subversive graffiti to large-format oil paintings. And in Gaußstraße in Altona, an example of “immersive art” can be seen until June 8 with the multimedia show “Van Gogh alive”. There, paintings by Vincent van Gogh are digitally processed in three dimensions and are, to a certain extent, accessible.
“Van Gogh Alive” – paintings are projected onto walls and floors in Altona
Quelle: picture alliance/dpa
The private-sector principle is as different as the experiences. Admission prices are similar to tickets for major museums. For example, an adult pays 25 euros for the show “Van Gogh alive”. Anyone approaching the Banksys work via replicas pays 18 euros. For comparison: a ticket for the Hamburger Kunsthalle costs 14 euros, a visit to the Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam costs 19 euros.
The pursuit of profit from the works of others has raised criticism: Max Hollein, director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, told the Wall Street Journal about the 40 multimedia Van Gogh shows in the USA: “It’s not art, but a kind of entertainment.” Katharina Rustler from the Viennese “Standard” put it in a nutshell after seeing the 42-minute show “Van Gogh alive”: “What is advertised as an extraordinary digital art exhibition is an overpriced spectacle”.
Hollein’s counterparts in Hamburg see both positive and negative aspects. Kunsthallen director Alexander Klar says: “These are clearly commercial undertakings” and points out the problem “that the technology becomes obsolete relatively quickly. What was chic yesterday and attracted people is already worn down tomorrow. That doesn’t correspond to the artistic aspirations that we have, short-lived technical effects rarely influence artistic developments.” The Digital Art Museum, which is being built in Hafencity, clearly considers it “the most interesting development at the moment in the area of combining new art forms with commercial intentions “.
Kathrin Baumstark, director of the Bucerius Kunst Forum, puts it in perspective: Of course, the “immersive shows served to create an event – with classical music and scents accompanying the pictures. It’s reminiscent of a short film with music, but not in a way that stimulates my own thinking.” Referring to Banksy, Baumstark points out that the artist “works very situationally. The works live from the context.” That is either missing from the exhibition or replaced by a new context.
“We take it as a big compliment that he doesn’t say anything about it”
The Banksy exhibition is not unproblematic in other respects either. There can be no official authorization because the British street artist with the pseudonym “Banksy” has maintained his anonymity since the beginning of his work. Virginia Jean, curator of the show “The Mystery of Banksy” refers to the artist’s principle of not commenting on exhibitions with his works unless he attacks them because they are not designed in his spirit.
Jean says about her traveling exhibition, which ran in Graz and Mainz, among other places: “There is a communication, but it is very one-sided. We informed him about our exhibition, that’s just important – so he knows exactly what’s hanging here and what’s on display. We take it as a great compliment that he doesn’t say anything about it.” The artist does not share in the income. The organizers regularly donate to Banksy’s project “Louise Michel”, a boat owned by the artist whose crew rescues refugees in the Mediterranean.
Neither Klar nor Baumstark, as representatives of classic cultural institutions, see competition in the new formats. Both hope that they will arouse the interest of visitors to go to the museum to experience originals there. In the pandemic, she learned a lot about the effects of digital museum work, says Baumstark, and new formats also appeal to a younger audience. In the exhibition house there is then the chance to go “to another level” when looking at the originals.
Klar says: “We are quite curious about immersive projects. When technically fueled aesthetics become style-defining, such as with the artist Olafur Eliasson, then I listen up in the museum. My claim of the museum is that the relationship between visitor, work of art and space becomes an emotional and intellectual experience. Our rooms should promote this experience.” In fact, he is thinking about working with artists “who use this technology intelligently”, for example in the domed hall above the rotunda: “This hall calls for a use that includes technology, because with it you can could take up the overwhelming factor of the immersive. Coming from a different spirit, we would also claim to shape the aesthetics.”