Kunst meets Felix Krämer
“ The entire building
is ready to be
rediscovered”
Since October 2017 Felix Krämer has been General Director of the Kunstpalast. Against the backdrop of a huge building site, VIVID-editor Rainer Kunst was in conversation with him about plans for the future, the museum business in the times of lockdown and the engagement of companies and people.
The passage between the two buildings of the Kunstpalast, the so-called Belvedere, offers the best view of the Ehrenhof and Tonhalle.
Due to the pandemic we can’t meet in our usual way for this type of interview, which would be either jogging or cycling. If we had had the choice, which would you have preferred?
I’m afraid if we had met jogging you would have outrun me. I find running on its own exhausting, but to have to think and talk in addition to that – it is not a pleasant thought. So it definitely would have been cycling. I am always out and about on my bike anyway, that’s my kind of sport.
When you became General Director of the Kunstpalast in October 2017 the building was in a rotten state. Why did you decide on the Kunstpalast as your new place of work and how are the comprehensive renovation works progressing?
The great thing about Kunstpalast is its very heterogeneous collection, it’s like a general store where you have a little bit of everything – it makes it possible to work creatively, and surprises are never far. In a collection in which one masterwork is next to another it is much more difficult to tell stories and inspire curiosity. This is the reason why we need Kunstpalast to be a high quality building to spend time in and we are currently working on this intensively. Even I am surprised how well and how quickly we are making progress with the renovations.
We have just viewed a huge building site together. How is the new Kunstpalast supposed to look like?
We are planning to open in the late summer of 2022. The new building will appear more homogenous from the outside, however, the significant changes will be more visible inside and in the courtyard. The café and restaurant, for example, will open towards the courtyard with a beautiful view toward the Tonhalle and the fountain. For the inside there are new floor pans, new staircases, new spaces for education – the changes are massive. The entire building is ready to be rediscovered. Many people are not even aware that we have an excellent and wide ranging collection spanning epochs – there will be surprises as there are real hidden treasures. The idea is to tell an intertwined story for the visitor, I expect a lot from the confrontations and combinations they will encounter. Also, new digital contributions such as avatars or scanned objects will take on more importance. For me, personally, this is a core aspect of a new museum experience.
One of the exhibition halls in the Kunstpalast serves as a storage room during the renovation work.
There are renovation works going on and you you had to close the Kunstpalast due to the Coronavirus pandemic (as of 28th of November, 2020). What effect does that have on you and the team and how will you get through this difficult time?
A museum is a real enterprise, we have almost 100 employees. It would be naïve to believe that everything will continue as before after lockdown. Everything that has been lost in terms of revenue cannot be made up. This is a huge problem. Instead of finishing the year with a surplus, we are finishing with a huge deficit. As opposed to facilities such as libraries, which are currently open, museums are designed for visitors to keep their distance. Hence I personally find the current closure of Kunstpalast very frustrating. Whilst we are forced to sit behind closed doors it is possible to do shopping at DIY stores. But of course we have to deal with it and of course we are continuing to schedule new programmes. We have, for example, moved an exhibition curated by Claudia Schiffer, which was planned to open in March 2021, to the summer of 2021. Then we will invite you into the world of fashion of the 90s, an era that set standards that remain with us today.
Next to sources like public funding, does corporate citizenship play an increasing role for the Kunstpalast? How does working with a business work for you?
For the past years we have continuously worked on and grown our sponsoring and fundraising. This has resulted in great partnerships with a number of companies. Art serves, in particular for large companies, as a great projection surface. There is an image transfer that works both ways. Through these partnerships we were able to strongly expand our digital platform. ERGO, for example, supported the creation of the first museum website aimed at children in Germany.
For the past year the Kunstpalast has also housed the NRW forum. Has this been successful?
We are very lucky that under the leadership of Alain Bieber there is a huge amount of creative energy and competency around, in particular with regards to digital media. In this collaboration we are aiming to combine and make use of the advantages of both organisations – and that works both ways. The smaller ‘ship’ NRW Forum is more agile and adaptable, the huge ‘vessel’ Kunstpalast offers a certain sense of security and reliability. This has worked very well this year and I am thankful that the NRW Forum is part of the Kunstpalast.
The altarpiece in the picture gallery "Die Himmelfahrt Mariae" by Peter Paul Rubens with his format 473 x 332 cm had to be taken off the wall and packed and put in a safe place.
Together you are working towards the ‘Augmented Reality biennale’ 2021. What can we look forward to?
I believe this is going to be one of the highlights of the year. As more and more artists are working with AR and VR, it is important to create a space for this. We will hold the exhibition in the courtyard garden. It is curated by Alain Bieber, lots of artists have already agreed to take part. One of the intentions is also to reach younger audiences with future-oriented ‘products’ – an AR-biennale could be a way.
Public opinion is also important to you. This is illustrated by the project Palast Pilot_innen.
Yes, we have received more than 1,000 applications from people in Düsseldorf and we are going to choose ten Palast Pilot_innen. We want to find out from them how we can improve the Kunstpalast’s redevelopment – I am looking forward to exciting exchanges on equal terms. By occupation I am naturally a nerd. There is only one thing that I can do well: museums.
What do you like about the location Düsseldorf. What more would you wish from the city?
My decision to start at the Kunstpalast was also a conscious choice of the city. When you have a look at what is happening in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich or Frankfurt in the world of museum business, then I have to say that, actually, quite a lot is happening in ‘little’ Düsseldorf. The urban community makes it possible, is interested in it, appreciates it. I would wish that people were more aware of the fact that we are all in this together, that each and every person can influence just how nice it is to live here – also through culture. The museum’s friendship circle has doubled in the last couple of years. This is really amazing and a great compliment to the work of the entire team. Moreover, it is motivating us to not let up. The success of the Kunstpalast is up to all of us. •
Due to the lockdown in November, the exhibition “Empört Euch! Kunst in Zeiten des Zorns” was only open for four days. A twelve metre high wall has been wallpapered with the work “Bosnian Girl” (2003) by Šejla Kamerić.
KUNSTPALAST
Ehrenhof 4-5, 40479 Düsseldorf
www.kunstpalast.de
FELIX KRÄMER
• Since October 2017: General Director
and Artistic Manager of the Museum Kunstpalast
• 2008 – 2017: Head of Collection, Kunst der Moderne, Städel Museum, Frankfurt/Main
• 2004 – 2008: Curator and Advisor to the Director, Kunsthalle Hamburg Worked as exhibition curator, amongst others, at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and the National Museum for Western Art, Tokyo.
• Personal passions: Not to everyone’s taste and definitely without a rational explanation: kitsch tea cups with images of the British Royal Family. The more lurid the better!
Interview Tom Corrinth
Pictures Frank Beer
(The article was already written in December 2020)