2008 - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

Pierre T.M. Chen, Founder of the Yageo Foundation,
Taiwan, delivers a speech at the opening
of the exhibition “Madonna meets Mao”
Yehudit Inbar, Director of the Museum Department of
the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Centre and Curator
of the exhibition “Lichtflecke – Frau sein im Holocaust”
(Spots of Light – To Be a Woman in the Holocaust)
exhibition provided exciting insights into Azerbaijani art
from the Soviet period to the present day. Young art from
Baku first drew attention among the western public at the
Venice Biennale in 2008. As part of the cultural programme
of the “Year of Azerbaijan in Germany 2008”, it went on
show in Dresden’s Residenzschloss.
The final international exhibition in Dresden not connected
with the theme of “China in Dresden in China” was
“Madonna meets Mao” presented in the Kunsthalle im
Lipsiusbau from mid-October 2008. Pierre T. M. Chen,
owner of a globally operating electronics company, showed
selected works of western and Chinese art from the collection
of the Yageo Foundation, Taiwan. Pierre T. M. Chen
has had a special relationship with the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden since 2007, when he generously
allowed the painting “Tante Marianne” (Aunt Marianne),
a highly important early work by Gerhard Richter, to be
exhibited in Dresden under a long-term loan agreement.
Cross-border exchanges of experience
Many of our international research and exhibition projects
have benefited from museum employees having the opportunity
to work in partner institutions abroad, sometimes
for several months, and to conduct research jointly
with their counterparts there. Conversely, colleagues from
abroad also visited the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden and were integrated into the research teams of
the respective museums (see page 60). Exchanges of
experience also take place at conferences and congresses,
however, and quite often it is the experiences from Dresden,
in particular, that are especially sought after around
The opening of the exhibition “Lichtflecke – Frau sein
im Holocaust” (Spots of Light – To Be a Woman in the
Holocaust) in the Residenzschloss in Dresden
the world. The unique form of presentation in the Grünes
Gewölbe, using special showcases and sophisticated lighting
technology in the new area and employing innovative
display and security techniques in the historic area, is regarded
as extremely successful and as a model for other
museums. The talks given by the Director of the Grünes
Gewölbe and the Rüstkammer, Prof. Dr. Dirk Syndram, and
by the Head of Technical Services, Michael John, in this
connection, as well as the advisory discussions conducted
in Kiev, Vienna and Dubai serve the purpose of technology
transfer in the sphere of museum construction. The negative
experiences gained by Dresden in connection with the
flood disaster of 2002 are also being used to draw lessons
that can be passed on to other museums and cultural institutions,
for example in a talk given by the Head of
Technical Services in November 2008 at a conference on
“Museums and Disasters” in New Orleans. Such instances
demonstrate that international networks and partnerships
not only give rise to wonderful exhibitions but can also be
of benefit to art itself.
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