MUSEUM FRIDERICIANUM

Fridericianum is a central hub of contemporary art. Significant positions and artistic currents as well as socially relevant issues are identified, presented and debated here. Experimental and well-researched group and solo exhibitions, screenings and performances, conferences and symposia highlight the spectrum of contemporary art and discourse.

Designed in the spirit of the Enlightenment and built by Huguenot architect Simon Louis du Ry, Fridericianum opened its doors in 1779 as the world’s very first purpose-built public museum. Since then, the history of the building has been marked by disruption, Fridericianum acting as a stage for history itself.

The museum’s story begins with that of its namesake: Landgrave Friedrich II. Having sold soldiers to the British, he went against the zeitgeist and decided to build not a residential palace with his riches, but the world’s first public museum building, which was to stand on the recently laid out parade square in Kassel. An encyclopedic approach was to be used to systemize art and knowledge, exhibit it and make it accessible to the wider public. The museum contained, among others, a collection of antiques, the “Modern Statue Gallery”, a medal, machinery and watch room, cork models of Roman architecture, a print room, a manuscripts room and map gallery, scientific instruments, and a library, built to house 100 000 volumes. Furthermore, Fridericianum was connected to the medieval Zwehrenturm tower, which had been made into an observatory.

When, during the course of French expansion, Napoleon’s youngest brother Jérôme Bonaparte became King of Westphalia, and Kassel was named the capital of the kingdom, Fridericianum was given an entirely new purpose and was rearranged accordingly. From 1810 it became the first parliamentary building in Germany, housing meetings of the imperial estates. This radical conversion did not last long. After Jérôme’s expulsion, Fridericianum was returned to its original purpose as a museum in 1813, when the Brothers Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm, were employed at the library. With the beginning of Prussian rule in 1866, the museum’s collections were gradually transferred to the Prussian center of power in Berlin, hence in 1913 Fridericianum ceased to function as a museum and only retained its status as a state library.

In the course of World War II the building caught fire during bombing raids on Kassel in 1941 and 1943. All that remained of Fridericianum and the library were the enclosing walls and the Zwehrenturm tower.

In 1955, the provisionally restored building became the focus of the documenta exhibition founded by Arnold Bode. Alongside the Venice Biennale, the documenta is considered the world’s most important cyclical large-scale exhibition of contemporary art, and has been held at Fridericianum every five years, with documenta 14 due in 2017. The exhibition building itself was fully renovated by 1982.

Ever since 1988, Fridericianum has continually hosted changing exhibitions of contemporary art. The institution was opened with Veit Loers’ show Schlaf der Vernunft (1988), which touched upon Fridericianum’s original purpose and juxtaposed museum objects from the Enlightenment period with those of contemporary art. Loers’ opening exhibition was an indicator of the program that he would evolve as artistic director; a position in which he created a dialog between conventionally divergent forms of art. In 1998 René Block took over as this role and, right from the beginning, focused on the supposed periphery of the global art world. Alongside exhibitions on the Fluxus movement, he put on large-scale, themed group exhibitions, including In den Schluchten des Balkan (“In the Gorges of the Balkans”, 2003). Furthermore, in 2003 he founded the curatorial workshopKuratorenwerkstatt, which worked closely with the apexart Curatorial Program in New York, and thus opened up the institution to emerging curators. Block’s successor Rein Wolfs directed Fridericianum from 2008 to 2011. In solo exhibitions by young international artists, Wolfs explored dimensions of engagement and humanity in contemporary art. His exhibitions include Deutsche Grammatik (2008) by Swiss artist Christoph Büchel and JULY, IV, MDCCLXXVI by the Vietnamese-Danish artist Danh Vo (2011).

Since June 2013 Susanne Pfeffer has been director of the Fridericianum.