Walter Benjamin
dal 6/4/2011 al 18/6/2011
Segnalato da
6/4/2011
Walter Benjamin
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
The realm of ideas of the philosopher and author Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) originated to a great extent from his relations to art and architecture. In a montage of films, images and texts, composed by the Circolo de Bellas Artes / Madrid, Benjamin's thoughts on aura, metropolis, passages, aesthetics and fascism as well as on philosophy of history are visually reflected and vividly conveyed. An exhibition of the Architekturmuseum der TU Munchen The cinematic presentation is complemented by documents on Walter Benjamin and architecture.
Architecture and art have played a particular part for Walter Benjamin, because the relation of the past to the present was not of a temporal but of a figurative nature for him. Thus, according to his conception, the past could converge with the present via a flashlike image to form a ‘constellation’ and produce a ‘profane enlightenment’. Just like a configuration can be seen in the bright spots of a starry sky, interpreted as an astronomical constellation, the past is captured in a ‘dialectical picture in a standstill’.
The conceptual arguments are only the ‘reverberating thunder’. Not only works of the visual arts, like Paul Klee’s water colour ‘Angelus Novus’, but in particular buildings and cities provided such dialectical images for him, as a ‘past become space’, for instance with arcades, panoramas or interiors, which made him see through the dreams, ideals and phantasms of a collective.
For a long time, the concrete pictures in Benjamin’s thinking had little attention in comparison with his ‘thought-images’, only in the past few years his specific imagery became the focal point of research. While present studies pursue single aspects and examine selected examples, the project “Walter Benjamin. Constelaciones” by the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid tried to visualize Benjamin’s most important concepts in a filmic montage. The film, compiled by César Rendueles and Ana Useros under the direction of Juan Barja, was led back to Benjamin’s texts for the presentation at the Architekturmuseum der TU München, complemented with a composition of several major architecture-picture-text-relations.
The cinematic montage, which gives Benjamin’s ideas a visual dimension and thus integrates them again into the world of figurative perception, makes its whole complexity conceivable by including the explanations in the catalogue. A time-code provides exact references to the film and hence the explanations are easily traceable. Exhibition and film are attempting to open and deepen, respectively, the way to Benjamin by means of ‘a reflection in pictures’.
An exhibition of the Architekturmuseum der TU München together with the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, supported by the Instituto Cervantes de Múnich.
Accompanying Programme
Walter Benjamin und die Architektur | Lecture: Detlev Schöttker
Walter Benjamin was one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century. His ideas and works are particularly linked with architecture; buildings and cities served him as starting points for new materialistic aesthetics. Using the building type “arcade” as an example, Benjamin developed an early history of modernism in his uncompleted main work. Prof. Dr. Detlev Schöttker of the TU Dresden is one of the proven experts of Walter Benjamin and co-editor of the new critical complete edition.
Thurs. 05 May 2011 | Ernst von Siemens-Auditorium in the Pinakothek der Moderne | Barer Str. 40 | 80333 München | 18.00h | Free entrance
Curatorial guided tour with Irene Meissner and Hilde Strobl:
Thurs. 21 April | 18.30h
Thurs. 16 June | 18.30h
Press Contact:
Architekturmuseum der TU München in the Pinakothek der Moderne:
Katharina Horn
Arcisstr. 21 | 80333 Munich
T +49.(0)89.23805-383 | F +49.(0)89.23805-310
Email: horn@lrz.tum.de
www.architekturmuseum.de
Tine Nehler M.A. | Head of press department
Pinakothek der Moderne and Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen
Kunstareal | Barer Straße 29 | 80799 Munich
T +49.(0)89.23805-1320 | F +49.(0)89.23805-125
Email: presse@pinakothek.de
http://www.pinakothek.de/presse/index.php
Image: Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920
Foto © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem von David Harris
Press preview 07.04.2011, 11
Opening 07. 04.2011, 19
Pinakothek der Moderne
Barer Strasse 40 - Munich
Daily except MON 10.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m.
THU 10.00 a.m. - 8.00 p.m.
Admission: 10 euros | reduced 7 euros
Sunday admission 1 euro