Sculpture Only!

The Mitzlaff building at the Kunsthalle Mannheim, originally built as a sculpture museum in 1983, no longer meets today’s art museum requirements and is scheduled for demolition in 2014. Before the old building was demolished and replaced by a new one, four international sculptors have developed an exhibition featuring the extensive sculpture collection in Mannheim, which totals 840 pieces including a number of important works of the 20th century. The artist/curator Bogomir Ecker and his fellow colleagues John Bock, Kiki Smith and Roman Signer were developing a comprehensive concept which examined new perspectives and potentials of presenting sculptures in museums. They had the entire Mitzlaff building with its 2,000 sq.m. of exhibition space at their disposal for nine months.
The second half of the project had a scientific-theoretical emphasis. In cooperation with the Institute of Art History at the University of Regensburg and the interdisciplinary working group “Sehen und Verstehen” (“Seeing and Understanding”), the Kunsthalle Mannheim was planning block seminars and an international symposium on new exhibition formats for sculptures in spring 2013. The exhibition has been accompanied by an action and performance programme around the city, developed in cooperation with other cultural organizations in Mannheim.

Artistic director: Bogomir Ecker, Ulrike Lorenz
Research assistant: Stefanie Müller
Artists: Roman Signer (CH), Kiki Smith (US), John Bock

Kunsthalle Mannheim, 16 Mar. – 17 Nov. 2013