1 Lost Paradise - Armin Kerber

Lost Paradise – Foreword
Our research encountered desolation. However, we wish to present
options of reconciliation. The hortus conclusus as a man-made vision of Eden
has always been a symbol of the reconciliation of human existence between
this world and the next. And so, on the ground floor of the Middle Hill,
in an exhibition entitled In Paul Klee’s Enchanted Garden, we will present
over a hundred masterpieces by Paul Klee themed on gardens and nature.
Here, the focus is as much on Klee’s intensive nature studies as on recently
discovered facts concerning his research on Goethe’s Scientific Studies.
In contrast with Klee’s paradisal Magical Garden that flourishes in
the central gallery, the space on the floor below will showcase Lost Paradise,
an exhibition focused on Klee’s Angelus novus. Created in 1920, it
is not only a key piece in Klee’s oeuvre but one of the great art icons of
the 20th century. We are very pleased with the minor sensation of being
able to present Angelus novus in our exhibition East of Eden as this is the
first time in almost thirty years that the work has left Jerusalem. Its special
position in Klee’s oeuvre is owed to Walter Benjamin, the historical philosopher
and cultural theorist (1892 – 1940). He said of Klee’s angel that
he has been expelled from Paradise; his eyes have seen all the catastrophes
in human history. Through The Angel’s Gaze, Lost Paradise presents artists
who have made it their concern to represent disasters, atrocities, suffering,
everyday violence and brutality. Works by Klee from the First World
War, artworks by Alberto Giacometti, Tacita Dean, Pablo Picasso, Adrian
Paci, Anselm Kiefer, Fernando Sánchez Castillo, Alfred Kubin, Luc Tuymans
and Boris Michailov contrast with films by Jean-Luc Godard and
Alain Resnais, as well as exhibits from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial
Museum. As Angelus novus can only be presented from May 29 until June
6, 2008, its place will then be taken by a specially-made documentary
photograph, as well as Klee’s original drawing, Angelus novus, on loan
from a private collection.
A spatial installation called Die Verquickung (The Connection) by
Gerda Steiner and Jörg Lenzlinger will link the Magical Garden and Lost
Paradise. The artists have transformed the entire “Museumsstrasse”, including
the area between the galleries, into an artificial, hybrid cosmos of
nature that oscillates between innocent Paradise and the Fall of Man, and
back to Paradise.
In the field behind the landscape sculpture of Zentrum Paul Klee, the
spectacular size of Paul McCarthy’s installation confronts the three hill
8