Tea and Dry Biscuits. Eine Jubiläumsausstellung
Georg Kolbe Museums, Berlin
17 April – 28 September 2025

2025 marks the 75th anniversary of the Georg Kolbe Museum. The exhibition presented on this occasion takes its origins from the institution’s founding, which opened its doors in 1950 as the first new museum in post-war West Berlin. At that time, the museum served as a memorial to the sculptor Georg Kolbe, who died in 1947 and lived and worked on Sensburger Allee from the time the extraordinary ensemble was built in 1928. The studio spaces, opened to the public in 1950, had seemingly remained untouched since Kolbe’s death. Numerous sculptures on display provided insight into the artist’s entire oeuvre. Kolbe’s personal belongings elevated the work and living space to a place of veneration. The artistic contributions question how memory is formed, passed one, or suppressed: Álvaro Urbano’s installation “Noches en los Jardines de Espana” (2020), presented in Kolbe’s former studio, confronts the legacy of the site with themes of exile and impermanence. Rotten oranges scattered across the floor serve as a metaphor for what has been lost – a quite yet powerful reflection on historical violence and cultural memory. The exhibition focuses on the staging of memory and examines remembering in its various forms – both private and public. Contemporary artists offer their own reflections on the topic, opening up diverse perspectives on the past and present. What was remembered in 1950? How and what do we remember today, and what forms does this memory take? On the one hand, the exhibition explores a critical examination of the museum’s own institutional history, of imagined, felt, and lived (family) ties that have had a lasting impact on the museum. On the other hand, the exhibition takes a self-reflective look at the topic of musealization and the management, idealization, and narration of history and memory. Extract from press release

Photo by Enric Duch