"Finally open again for ..." - SPK, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Musikinstrumenten-Museum launch reopening campaign - designed by Büro X from Vienna
Press release from 06/08/2021
Corona soon had the world in its grip for a year and a half. Everyone's lives had been fundamentally changed by the pandemic. This grip is now loosening. Hygiene measures are gradually being scaled back - and public life is getting back on track. New perspectives are opening up - including for the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation with its National Museums in Berlin and the Museum of Musical Instruments. The museums are now open again to visitors from all over the world. This is no small matter. The museums have therefore decided to celebrate this step towards a new normality with a campaign.
Under the slogan "Finally open again for ...", famous motifs from the museums' collections are intertwined with social media buzzwords. The aim is to show that the exhibits in museums have much more to do with our everyday worlds than many people realise. In order to visualise this, the campaign relies on collisions between historical subjects and contemporary concepts. The bust of Nefertiti meets the term #influencer; "Paradise" by Jan Brueghel the Younger from the picture gallery meets #escapism. The glazed lion reliefs of the Ishtar Gate from the Pergamon Museum meet #Catcontent; the Berlin gold hat from the Museum of Prehistory and Early History meets #Aluminium hats.
The second theme of the campaign is "Originals only". Especially in the digital age with its endless and lightning-fast access and reproduction possibilities, the encounter with the original becomes even more valuable than it already was. Only in a museum is it possible to directly feel the aura of an exhibit. This is confirmed by the millions and millions of people who visit museums worldwide every year, despite the thousands of high-quality images available on the internet.
"With the reopening campaign, we not only want to invite Berliners and guests of the city to visit us, we also want to show with a wink what we have been missing in our everyday lives: World culture, beauty, contemplation and secure knowledge. At the same time, the campaign shows that museums also want to remain open and relevant to social issues," says SPK President Hermann Parzinger.
Michael Eissenhauer, Director General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: "We are delighted to bring the reopening of our museums out into the city and into the digital media with this poster campaign. The campaign also ironically demonstrates the self-image and commitment of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: to be open, curious and always surprising for all target groups."
Thomas Ertelt, Director of the State Institute for Music Research, emphasises: "We are happy that the period of silence in the Musical Instrument Museum is over and that it will once again be possible to present our instruments live. Because the same applies to the sounds of music: there is no substitute for the original, the experience of music needs a shared space in which seeing, hearing and understanding take place in a completely different way to digital consumption."
The campaign was developed together with the directors of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Musikinstrumenten-Museum by the Vienna-based agency Büro X, which is also responsible for the location brand of the MuseumsQuartier Wien (MQ). "The campaign, which was developed before the lockdown, was launched with a delay of one year - and it was ultimately a happy coincidence that our "OPEN FOR..." approach at the time has now been given an additional dimension," says Andreas Miedaner, Managing Director of Büro X: "At a time when museums are allowed to reopen due to the current coronavirus situation, this campaign aims to invite people in Berlin to visit museums to admire the first-class originals. But it is also a time to pause and reflect, a time when we can discover parallels and references to the present and future in the past."
From now on, a total of 8 motifs from the campaign can be experienced in Berlin's urban space. A further 13 motifs will be played out via social media.