Our aim is to share knowledge
Our aim is to share knowledge!
Founding director of the ZKM, Heinrich Klotz, once referred to the cultural institute as the »Digital Bauhaus«. Fully in keeping with its content, the ZKM is at home in the digital world. The new ZKM website, which we think of as a digital annex, offers the possibility for all interested visitors throughout the world to participate in the scientific research and cultural education offered at the ZKM. A further aim is to link expert knowledge to the public sphere.
We wish to improve our understanding of the world and thus take up current themes in an endeavor to make the public aware of questions, contexts, and problems.
This is why we are different:
We not only organize exhibitions, but also develop and produce – we cross-question what has become established and develop new contributions. What interests us from the past are personalities, discoveries, and developments that have either been overlooked or ignored, and which we now seek to bring to the surface.
But our main interest is in the present and future – and for this, art is our tool as nowadays the scope of art is no longer self-referential: instead, it takes up current socially relevant themes, approaches, and disciplines in other fields; it is interested not only in politics but, most significantly, in science. This is what we want to show, and share with you – not only onsite, but also online, via our website and the various networks.
Digitalization has captured us and we want to understand this digital world in which we live – which is becoming ever smarter and whose functions are becoming increasingly invisible. We want to work on this and work on the contents. We want to share this knowledge and insights with you – not only onsite but also online, via our website and the networks.
Why do we want to hear your voices?
Because you are eager to learn, and because, like us, you want to know more. You want to discuss the issues and expand your horizons. We do not know everything, but together we can focus on the themes, questions, and problems currently faced by society, and in doing so, lend them greater visibility. Knowing a seminal artist of the past is good; autonomy in contemporary society is indispensable. While entertainment may be satisfying, knowledge of and a sensibility for social development are enriching.
We want to share knowledge with you, and learn from you. We address current topics and want to hear your opinion – after all, »doubt grows with knowledge« (Goethe). Visibility arises when something is widely discussed.
Why with the ZKM?
Because we are not only at home in the art world. We discover and we show! We are not the art market and we are not dusty. We bring together what belongs together: art, science, literature, the performing arts, politics, economics.