Temple and barn: The new SPK magazine is dedicated to the future of the Berlin Cultural Forum
Press release from 06/30/2021
To coincide with the reopening of the Neue Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin on 21 August and the progress of construction work on the Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, a booklet is being published that explores the possibilities of the Quarter of Art, Literature, Music and Science
Berlin's Kulturforum in Tiergarten is to be revitalised and given a new quality. At least that is the unanimous wish of local residents in the new SPK magazine, which is dedicated entirely to the future of this urban neighbourhood near Potsdamer Platz. The magazine, which is being published these days, is dedicated to this place in reports, interviews, background reports and essays, in which the old Tiergarten neighbourhood appears just as much as the time when the free world placed the insignia of free art directly next to the Berlin Wall with the New National Gallery, Philharmonic Hall and State Library. When the wall fell, the place remained a special one. Now, with the Museum of the 20th Century, a strong connection is finally being created in this place of outstanding architectural solitaires, as architect Jacques Herzog and Nationalgalerie director Joachim Jäger emphasise in an interview.
The magazine starts with an essay by art historian Christian Welzbacher, who sees the Kulturforum as a place of open contradictions and a source of strength. In an interview, Philharmonic Orchestra director Andrea Zietzschmann, SPK president Hermann Parzinger and the director of the St. Matthäus Foundation, Hannes Langbein, hope that the new building will benefit the area.
Michael Bienert embarks on a historical search for traces of the Tiergarten district and finds "a topography of meeting places with modern art" beneath the pavement of the Potsdamer Platz neighbourhood and the Kulturforum. The actor and author Hanns Zischler explains his love of the Ibero-American Institute and in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, shirt designer Lasse Holger Mitterhusen has fashion curator Katrin Lindemann explain the changing style of an enigmatic creature. And finally, philosopher Andreas Weber writes about the rustling of the old plane tree on Scharounplatz.
The magazine ends with a look ahead to the major exhibition project "Utopia Kulturforum", which has brought together St. Matthew's Church, the New National Gallery, the Art Library, the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Philharmonie and the State Library and will be launched on 26 August.
The SPK magazine is published by the Media, Communication and Events Department. It is being produced in cooperation with the publishing house Res Publica and will be included in the art magazine "Monopol" on 1 July and in partial editions of the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" and the "Tagesspiegel" on 3 July. Press copies can be ordered at pressestelle@hv.spk-berlin.de.