2008 - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

National Art Museum of China, Beijing
View of the Bergpalais, Schloss Pillnitz Nina Reiser (centre) with her colleagues at the
National Art Museum of China, Beijing, Zheng Yan (right)
We should therefore make all the more effort to admit new
perspectives, to shift the boundaries of our horizons, recognise
different perceptions and limitations – in short, to
set out to survey the world anew.”
In holding the “China Year”, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden contributed to such a new investigation of
the world in the sphere of cultural and educational foreign
policy. They will continue to do so in future.
A chance to work abroad
The Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden regard themselves
as, among other things, a research institution.
Scholarly research requires cross-border exchange. Specialists
from all over the world come to Dresden in order to
learn from Dresden. At the same time, they bring their
experience with them. Over the past few years a continuous
exchange of curators has been established with the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; also, a one-year
study exchange visit took place with the Deutsches Forum
für Kunstgeschichte in Paris for the first time in 2008, and
it is intended that this should continue. As a result of the
intensive collaboration with the National Art Museum of
China in Beijing, it was possible to conduct staff exchanges.
This was something new: it was the first ever
exchange between employees of a Chinese and a German
museum. In preparation for several exhibitions in 2008
both in Beijing and in Dresden, Ms Zheng Yan worked in
the Director-General’s department in Dresden for seven
weeks. From there she coordinated the contacts between
the curators on both sides and among all the people involved
in preparing the exhibitions. In exchange, Nina
Reiser, a member of staff in the Director-General’s department
in Dresden, was entrusted with the task of working
for almost two months in a Chinese museum – the first
western colleague ever to do so: an exciting challenge – as
she confirms in retrospect! Initial uncertainty and polite
caution on the part of the Chinese colleagues were soon
replaced by a surprising openness, and Nina Reiser was
quickly “adopted” by the staff there. Strange sounding
names soon turned into people and – in this case –
friends.
The task was to prepare two exhibitions and their opening
ceremonies. Questions of content, organisation, contractual
agreements, technical arrangements and of course
language issues had to be solved and bridges built. As a
mediator between the cultures, Nina Reiser found that the
structures and procedures were sometimes different, but
they were not alien. Furthermore, what was always at the
forefront was the great enthusiasm of the Chinese for
German landscape painting of the Romantic period, of
Expressionism and of contemporary artists, as well as their
keenness on Gerhard Richter, the great idol of the young
generation of Chinese painters.
Staff exchanges serve not only to advance scholarly research;
they definitely also help the participants improve
their understanding of each other, of structures, decisionmaking
hierarchies, cultural differences and similarities. It
is therefore an important component in the overall structure
of long-term cooperation.
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