Architecture and Identity

Comprising approximately 1.500 exhibits, the ZKM Collection originates in acquisitions made by the first Director of the ZKM, Heinrich Klotz, who began building up the collection immediately after the founding of the Center for Art and Media. Works by numerous, first class and internationally renowned artists have since then become part of the collection, which is constantly being added to. However, since the opening of the ZKM | Museum of Contemporary Art in atria 1 and 2 in 1999, substantial parts of the ZKM's own collection have not yet been shown. A selection of works is to now be presented for the first time under the aspects »Architecture« and »Identity«.

Programmatically linked to the exhibition »Elmgreen & Dragset. Celebrity - The One & The Many«, in which two architectural large-scale sculptures are to be seen, the collection focuses attention on works thematizing architecture and its identity-creating potential. A building's appearance influences the ways in which those who inhabit it act and behave. Designed space functions as the public representative of a particular attitude, and in many places the representation of a certain way of life, and is thus always an expression of the social and economic realities of those who live and/or work within it. A further viewpoint of the exhibition Architecture and Identity is directed at the artistic staging of personalities in architectural contexts, as well as the at times playful and ironic treatment of surrounding realities.