DVR-Nummer 0002852 LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz NORDICO Stadtmuseum Linz Press Information Inaugural Press Conference Hemma Schmutz New Director for the Museums of the City of Linz Press Conference on Wednesday, 31 May 2017 at 10:00 a.m. at the LENTOS Kunstmuseum Interviewpartner: Klaus Luger, Mayor of the City of Linz Doris Lang-Mayerhofer, Commissioner of Cultural Affairs for the City of Linz Hemma Schmutz, Director for the Museums of the City of Linz Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller, Deputy Director for the Museums of the City of Linz Hedwig Saxenhuber, Curator LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, A-4021 Linz, Ernst-Koref-Promenade 1 Tel: +43 (0)732.7070-3600 Fax: +43 (0)732.7070-3604 www.lentos.at
Content LENTOS and NORDICO Have a New Director... 3 Program Preview 2018... 5 sundays at 11... 7 Biography Hemma Schmutz... 8 Press Images... 9 2
LENTOS and NORDICO Have a New Director Hemma Schmutz took over as Artistic Director of the Museums of the City of Linz on 2 May 2017. Among a total of 37 candidates, Hemma Schmutz, originally from Carinthia, was able to prevail at the hearings in mid-march. Hemma Schmutz s field of expertise is in the period from 1900 up to the present. It is important to her that art also deals with society and politics an ideal combination to head the two museums of the city of Linz, LENTOS and NORDICO, as Mayor Klaus Luger emphasized about the new appointment. Hemma Schmutz brings many years of experience in highly respected cultural institutions with her and conveys a great openness. This is evident in plans for a more frequent use of the LENTOS sculpture hall to arouse curiosity in public space about art. With the double exhibition on the year 1968 in LENTOS and NORDICO and the Klimt-Schiele-Moser exhibition, we can expect an exciting museum year with broad public interest, as Doris Lang-Mayerhofer, city councilor for culture, expressed happy anticipation. Heighten the Attraction! Use the Potentials! The new Director s vision is to operate the Museums of the City of Linz, LENTOS and NORDICO, as open houses. The two museums present themselves as a site of participation, engagement, research, experience, and communication. The starting point for Hemma Schmutz s museum work are two impulse directions: on the one hand, there is to be a search for international partners to enhance attractiveness to the outside. On the other hand, it is necessary to engage with regional themes, in order to reach the local public. There is to be an additional endeavor to open up the narrow boundaries of the institutions, for example by making use of the public areas around the museums. These days a museum not only has to meet the demands of a broad public, but also those of a specialized international audience. High-quality exhibitions, addressing regional themes, and a program of events intended to address different target groups, should appeal to as many visitors as possible. Beyond this, the Museums of the City of Linz should become more visible to the outside and more present in public space, says the new LENTOS Director Hemma Schmutz. 3
The Museum Expands Into Public Space The open space under LENTOS was originally defined by the architects Jürg Weber and Josef Hofer as a generally accessible sculpture hall. Sculptural, installative and performative projects in conjunction with exhibitions are to be increasingly realized in this fascinating spatial situation and the surroundings of LENTOS. The museum thus expands into public space and connects with the recreation space on the bank of the Danube. In the same way, the forecourt of NORDICO is also to be increasingly used for artistic or educational projects. LENTOS Collection Exhibiting Strengths The LENTOS Collection ranges from the early 19th century up to the present thus making it possible to trace the art historical development from Modernism to Contemporary Art. Works by Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and important representatives of German Impressionism and Expressionism (Liebermann, Sleyvogt, Corinth, and others) are the core of the Collection. Changing exhibitions from all the eras represented in the Collection are intended to focus even more attention on the LENTOS Collections in the future. Expanding the Core Audience and Attracting a Professional Audience In Linz it is important to increasingly draw new target groups to the museums. In this context, more work has been invested in recent years in developing an explicitly low-threshold access to the museum. What has already been achieved by LENTOS and NORDICO in the field of special guided tours, e.g. for the hearing-impaired, or the establishment of special educational formats for migrants, such as the format New Neighbors, is exemplary and is to be further developed in the future as well. LENTOS should also attract more international attention in this respect, cooperations with renowned international museums are an especially important factor that is also to be expanded in the future. 4
Program Preview 2018 2018 the Year of Anniversaries: 1918 1968 The 2018 program in the Museums of the City of Linz focuses on important anniversaries. Fifty years after the movement of 1968, a double exhibition in LENTOS and NORDICO takes stock. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the death of Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Kolo Moser, works by the three artists from the Linz Collection will be presented in an exhibition. 1968 ff (working title for the exhibition) Exhibition in LENTOS and NORDICO, Fall 2018 Curators: Georg Schöllhammer, Hedwig Saxenhuber The year 1968 stands for an epochal turn. The student protests and workers revolts in Western Europe and the USA rattled the power constellation of post-war order, while the crushing of the Prague Spring by Soviet tanks signaled the end of hope for an opening of the East Block. Much was set in motion in society, not only in politics, but also in the arts, and new connections were made in the following decade. The exhibition 1968 ff (working title) traces the echo of 1968 in Linz and in Upper Austria, opening up a map for the first time in an overview of art, architecture, music, film, and literature where central figures and moments of local history, long unknown, sometimes even up to the present, find a place. They are the starting point for exploring the rich tapestry of relationships and links with international scenes and developments that emerged here. Experiments in the field of aesthetics were launched with the aim of liberation from the cultural constraints of the first two post-war decades. The utopias and the first concrete projects were often carried by new institutions and groups that tied into international networks. They determined the artistic climate of the years following 1968 with ideas that still have an impact up to the present. 1968 ff (working title) traces the history of this upheaval that lastingly changed the climate in Linz and in the whole country, and of its protagonists, who have often themselves become renowned figures of European art history today. 5
Klimt-Schiele-Moser from Famous Linz Collections (working title) Exhibition in the LENTOS Kunstmuseum, Spring 2018 Curator: Elisabeth Nowak-Thaller In the fateful year of 1918, all of Europe changed: after the end of the First World War in the fall 10 million soldiers had lost their lives on the fronts the German Empire and the Austro- Hungarian Monarchy were extinguished. The year 1918 also signified a deep rupture for Austrian art: with the death of Gustav Klimt (6.2.1918), Kolo Moser (18.10.1918), the early death of Egon Schiele (31.10.1918), who died at 28 of the Spanish Flu that was raging through Europe, the Viennese avant-garde lost its most brilliant representatives within only a few months. Austria found itself in a state of self-dissolution. Many of the apocalyptic expectations once proclaimed by Karl Kraus were being fulfilled. Without commissions, young artists the generation of the 1890s were faced with not only a turning point in style, but also an artistic vacuum. The fate of art as a decorative, healing force was sealed. LENTOS provides new, fascinating insights into the Collection and the ongoing academic research of it. Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele and Kolo Moser left a lasting mark on art in Vienna around 1900. With the founding of the Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte, they brought about the birth of Modernism. Around fifty masterpieces of painting and graphic art by these three representatives of Austrian art of the turn of the century are being examined under various academic aspects. We honor the memory of these great classic artists and raise interesting questions about often puzzling biographies, complex provenances, or about restoration, and we present new art-historical insights. The holdings of the city museums (LENTOS and NORDICO) will be substantially expanded by the Upper Austrian State Museum (Kastner Collection) and loaned works privately owned in Linz. 6
sundays at 11 Since 2004 the LENTOS features sundays at 11, a series of talks, for which the LENTOS invites well-known figures from the world of art and culture. They discuss their activities and experiences in and with the world of art. Not only do audiences get a chance to follow the discussion at close quarters, they are also invited to join in; in fact, contributions from the floor have become an indispensable part of the format Before the Sunday morning talk an expanded Viennese breakfast is served as an additional feature (which you are of course free to skip if you want to). Next Appointment: Andrea Schurian in discussion with Hemma Schmutz 9 July at LENTOS Andrea Schurian, Head of Culture from the Austrian daily newspaper Der Standard, talks with LENTOS Director Hemma Schmutz about the new challenges in her jobs. An expanded Viennes breakfast is served from 10 a.m.; the beginning of the conversation is scheduled for 11 p.m. Registration Please register by Thursday before the talk under T +43 732 7070 3601 or claudia.kern@lentos.at. Admission Lecture and breakfast 14,- Lecture only 4,- 7
Biography Hemma Schmutz Mag. a Hemma Schmutz was born in 1966 in Klagenfurt, Carinthia. She studied German and Art History at the University of Vienna. From 1992 to 1993 she was the deputy managing director of the Galerie 5020 in Salzburg. From 1994 to 1997 she was involved in developing the Depot. Art in Discussion. After that she worked as a curator at the Generali Foundation in Vienna. From 2005 to 2013 she was the director of the Salzburg Kunstverein. Thereafter she taught for three years at the Viennese University for Applied Arts. Since 2015 she has been responsible for the Kunstraum Lakeside in in her home city of Klagenfurt. She will continue this work until the end of 2017. On 2 May 2017 Hemma Schmutz assumed the position of Artistic Director of the Museums of the City of Linz. 8
Press Images Press Images are available for download at www.lentos.at. Free use of press images only in conjunction with the relevant exhibition. Images page 9: LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, Foto: mascheks. 9
Images page 10: LENTOS Kunstmuseum Linz, Maria Ziegelböck 10