Me Collectors Room Berlin

Exhibition house of the Olbricht Foundation

The me Collectors Room Berlin / Stiftung Olbricht is an exhibition house in Berlin that was founded by Thomas Olbricht and opened on May 1, 2010. In the five-storey new building in the modern style at Auguststrasse 68 in the Mitte district , exhibits from Olbricht's private collection, the Olbricht Collection, or other international private art collections are shown in changing exhibitions.

In 2020 it became known that the me Collectors Room and the Wunderkammer would be relocated from Berlin to the Ruhr area . In its place the "Samurai Museum Berlin" (collection of Peter Jannsen ) will be installed.

background

In the building, exhibits by the collector Thomas Olbricht or excerpts from collections of other international private art collectors are shown in changing exhibitions on 1300 m². The Wunderkammer Olbricht with over 300 exhibits from the Renaissance and Baroque periods is also permanently installed . In addition to the exhibition rooms, the collection also includes a shop, a café and loft apartments . The Olbricht Collection includes several thousand works by 250 artists, including Gerhard Richter , Thomas Demand , Marlene Dumas , Cindy Sherman , Jonas Burgert and Eric Fischl . The origin of the collection goes back to an early passion for collecting on the part of the founder: at the age of four, he took a liking to collecting toy cars . During his work as a doctor, he had models of ambulances , fire brigade cars, police cars and THW vehicles on shelves in his treatment room .

The me Collectors Room Berlin is from the Foundation supported Olbricht. An extensive supporting program with artist and expert discussions, concerts, readings and culinary evenings accompanies all exhibitions. A very special affair of the heart is the children's program, with which art is to be anchored in the everyday life of children and young people in a playful way in various guided tours and workshops.

In order to make it easier for as many children and young people as possible in the rural regions of Brandenburg to access cultural education, the Wunderkammerschiff has also been on the move as a kind of mobile museum space on waterways in Berlin and Brandenburg since 2016. Historical objects from all over the world - from the fields of art, science and nature from the Olbricht Collection and from the Bode Museum , the Sculpture Collection and the Museum of Byzantine Art, National Museums in Berlin - can be seen on the ship. In the interactive exhibition, which was created in collaboration with the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences , elementary school students trained as Wunderkammer experts take on the task of mediating on board and encourage the visitor children to help design the room individually.

Exhibitions

Moving Energies - 10 years me Collectors Room Berlin

The title is inspired by the wish of the collector Thomas Olbricht to move people, to inspire them, to want to inspire enthusiasm for art.

From February 29 to May 17, 2020, the anniversary exhibition provides a very private insight into the collection and shows things and works of art that affect Thomas Olbricht personally. Eclectically put together in a scene inspired by his private rooms, visitors can trace the inspirations and worlds of thought of the collector. There are fire engines, Art Nouveau objects, romantic landscape paintings, but also designer furniture, postage stamps, globes or old masters' still lifes and, in addition to the cabinet of curiosities from the Renaissance and Baroque , especially contemporary art .

A separate room is dedicated to the abstract works of Gerhard Richter from the collection, and the other activities of the Olbricht Foundation with the extensive children and youth program and the Wunderkammerschiff are presented.

Gerhard Richter - Abstract works from the Olbricht Collection

The Olbricht Collection is one of the most extensive private collections in Europe and its choice of media is just as diverse as it is in the eras it covers. Within this eclectic abundance, however, a number of focal points can be made out, the most important of which is probably the comprehensive edition by Gerhard Richter . For the tenth anniversary of the me Collectors Room Berlin , from February 29 to May 17, 2020, an area of the exhibition was dedicated to the around 75 abstract works of Richter from the Olbricht Collection. Tapestries, color fields, strips or painting editions with a unique character, in combination with paintings and watercolors, testify to the wide-ranging oeuvre of the artist and impressively illustrate how closely the edition and the unique are interwoven in his oeuvre .

Art 19 - Box One

For the benefit of Amnesty International , Art 19 published a limited edition of ten original graphics with new works by Ayşe Erkmen , Shilpa Gupta, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, William Kentridge , Shirin Neshat , Yoko Ono , Gerhard Richter, Chiharu Shiota , Kiki Smith and Rosemarie Trockel . These works were presented for the first time in the exhibition "Art 19 - Box One" from December 11, 2019 to January 31, 2020 in the me Collectors Room Berlin . This was followed by further exhibitions at the MAMCO - Musée d'art moderne et contemporain in Geneva , in the DOX Center for Contemporary Art in Prague , and in the Salon d'Honneur of the Grand Palais in Paris .

Transverse Wave

The double exhibition "Transverse Wave" opened from November 16, 2019 to January 31, 2020 a dialogue between the German artist Mary Bauermeister and the work of the Bahraini artist Rashid Al Khalifa (* 1952). This dialogue was supported and constantly relocated by the sound installation by the German composer Simon Stockhausen .

Gerhard Richter - Portraits from the Olbricht Collection

The focus of the exhibited works by Gerhard Richter , who is internationally recognized as one of the most important contemporary artists, was on images of man from September 11, 2019 to January 31, 2020 - one of the central themes of his editions since the 1960s. Both photographs from the family album (Betty) and press photos of famous personalities (Mao , Elisabeth) serve Richter as templates for exploring artistic techniques. Likewise, he draws on some of his painted portraits and images - e.g. B. Ema (nude on a staircase) and Uncle Rudi - which he reproduces as prints or photographs. A prominent example of this approach are the 48 portraits that are shown as an edition. The painterly templates were shown in the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1972 .

Kirchner • Judge • Burgert

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Gerhard Richter and Jonas Burgert : from September 11 to November 3, 2019, the me Collectors Room Berlin dedicated separate artist rooms to three important German artists from three generations. The focus of the exhibited works was the image of humans as a motif. The exhibition with works from the Olbricht Collection was opened as part of Berlin Art Week on September 11, 2019.

BAROQUE

With BAROCK , the Wunderkammer Olbricht des me Collectors Room Berlin and the Schloss Caputh of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg presented artistic interventions by Margret Eicher , Luzia Simons, Rebecca Stevenson and Myriam Thyes from April 27 to October 31, 2019 .

BEYOND

Jonas Burgert , Jake & Dinos Chapman , George Condo , Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, FORT , Kris Martin and Francisco de Goya

In the exhibition BEYOND from April 10 to August 18, 2019, seven international artistic positions from the Olbricht Collection were shown, which deal with the otherworld in different ways. In the separately staged artist rooms, the individual artistic forms of expression painting, sculpture, video, installation and graphics became clear.

Zoo Mockba - the dawn of modernity , Soviet toy animals 1950–1980

The Berlin artist couple Köpcke & Weinhold, who from around 2011 onwards have brought together around 400 figures and toy animals from Soviet and Russian designers on the theme of Zoo Mockba , will be exhibiting precisely this collection in the anteroom of the Wunderkammer in spring 2019. These include works by Galina Sokolowa ( girl with dog , 1980s), Lew Razumowsky (red monkeys) , Lew Smorgon ( yellow deer , yellow-red giraffes , 1970s), Valeri Kotow ( train of evolution , 1960s) and Tamara Fedorova (Lions) . The collection was presented to the public for the first time in 2016.

The Moment is Eternity - Works from the Olbricht Collection

By April 2019, around 300 exhibited works and objects by around 60 artists will draw attention to the photographic works of the Olbricht Collection. They are shown in dialogue with other works of art in the collection as well as artifacts from the Wunderkammer.

THE LONG NOW - reflections on time and transience

The exhibition THE LONG NOW brought together 20 current artistic positions in the lounge of the me Collectors Room Berlin from July 8 to October 15, 2018 , in which different aspects of temporality come into play. These concern our concept of time as well as the patterns of time perception and, last but not least, the representation of time. Time is increasingly proving to be an open variable, which in subjective experience shows itself to be completely different than on the dials of our watches. Polarities such as calm and restlessness, acceleration and deceleration, but also instantaneousness, duration and transience become central categories.

Eva & Adele - l'amour du risque

The exhibition presented works by the artist couple Eva & Adele from the past 25 years in a retrospective overall installation . She explained the conceptual attitude and the visual worlds of the artists. For the first time, entire work complexes from her most important work groups in the media of drawing, painting, photography, video and sculpture as well as her self-designed costumes and costume plans were shown in the me Collectors Room Berlin from April 27 to August 27, 2018. They illustrate the highly differentiated artistic existence of Eva & Adele, which radically transcends borders.

It smells like… flowers & fragrances

The exhibition It smells like… flowers & fragrances showed from April 14 to July 1, 2018 in the me Collectors Room Berlin, using the example of 26 artists, the current potential of the visually powerful theme of the display of flowers and the subversive olfactory power of fragrances in contemporary art.

Indigenous Australia: Masterworks from the National Gallery of Australia

With this exhibition, the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) and the me Collectors Room Berlin presented from November 16, 2017 to April 2, 2018 a comprehensive insight into the worlds of traditional and modern art of the indigenous Australians between the early 19th century and the presence.

Portrait of a Nation

Contemporary art from the United Arab Emirates - With works from the ADMAF Art Collection

The exhibition Portrait of a Nation from September 13 to October 29, 2017 gave an insight into the work of 50 contemporary artists from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The visitors were invited to explore the country through the individual perspectives of the participating artists on their homeland. The exhibition was divided into seven themed rooms: Nation & Unity, Geography & Nature, Architecture & Urbanism , Portrait & Identity, Religion & Spirituality, Language & Calligraphy , and Tradition & Heritage.

Edition 12 ̅21

Edition 12 ̅21 aimed to draw attention to the problem of the increasing risk of dementia . It was possible to win 21 contemporary artists who made their works of art available for this good cause. From June 8 to July 1, 2017, 21 hand-signed works by the participating artists were presented in the me Collectors Room Berlin . The net proceeds of the edition boxes limited to 50 pieces went to the Rudi Assauer Initiative, which is committed to the fight against Alzheimer 's.

Participants: Stephan Kaluza , Elger Esser , Dieter Nuhr , Katharina Sieverding , Stefan Kürten , Mischa Kuball , Johanna Flammer, Kate Waters, Yvonne Roeb , Bahar Batvand, Frauke Dannert , Paloma Varga Weisz , Karin Kneffel , Bernd Schwarzer , Martin Klimas, Sigrid von Lintig, Jutta Haeckel, Frank Bauer, Elke Thesing, Katharina Grosse and Klaus Mettig .

Sigmar Polke - The editions

The entire edition work by Sigmar Polke , one of the most important contemporary artists, including around 200 works from the Kunstraum am Limes collection, was on view in the me Collectors Room from April 28 to August 27, 2017 in Berlin.

Editions occupy a special place in Sigmar Polke's artistic work. Editions offered him an additional opportunity to create intense and excessive variations and extensions of his experiments in the form of an endless confrontation with himself and the world. Like an alchemist , he expected different techniques to serve his creative self, so that edition works were created as objects, books, portfolios, photographs, photocopies, collages and numerous prints.

Picha / Pictures - Between Nairobi and Berlin

From March 4 to June 4, 2017, the exhibition Picha / Pictures showed works by artists from Berlin and works by children who live in East Africa 's largest slum, Kibera. In cooperation with the artists Zuzanna Czebatul, Zhivago Duncan, Andreas Golder, Amélie Grözinger, Markus Keibel, Caroline Kryzecki, Erik Schmidt, Pola Sieverding and Ulrich Wulff for the association One Fine Day e. V. originated.

My Abstract World

For 30 years, Thomas Olbricht's enthusiasm for intense colors and great expression has been encouraging him to collect abstract works of art of the most varied of styles. From the more than 350 abstract works by 90 different artists in his collection, he presented My Abstract World from September 14, 2016 to April 2, 2017, a selection of his current favorites in the me Collectors Room Berlin . At the same time, the collector transformed the exhibition rooms with seating groups, oriental carpets and reading material into a world of experience that should appeal to all the senses. This gave visitors the opportunity to relax and immerse themselves in the work while enjoying music or a drink.

Private exposure

From April 27 to June 22, 2016, the Private Exposure exhibition reflected on the building of the me Collectors Room and responded to its open and glazed room architecture, which offers visitors a variety of lines of sight. The works create connections between the two floors of the building as well as between the exhibition space and the street. This is intended to bring the actions of seeing and being seen into focus. The usually private encounter of the viewer with a work of art is exposed here to the view of the outside public. The exhibition was a cooperation of the me Collectors Room Berlin / Stiftung Olbricht with the London Metropolitan University and the Whitechapel Gallery as part of the master's program “Curating the Contemporary”.

Cindy Sherman - Works from the Olbricht Collection

In the retrospective exhibition Cindy Sherman - Works from the Olbricht Collection , 65 photographs by the artist were shown from September 16, 2015 to August 28, 2016 in the me Collectors Room Berlin . With works from almost all creative periods, the collection provided a remarkable overview of the entire oeuvre of the photo artist. Cindy Sherman has created an unmistakable and groundbreaking work that has expanded the formal language of photography in an unimagined way and thus became one of the most important oeuvres of our time.

Falling Fictions

With this exhibition, from September 16 to November 15, 2015, the Olbricht Foundation invited young curators from the London Metropolitan University for the fourth time to develop their own view of the Olbricht Collection and to hold an exhibition in the me Collectors Room Berlin as part of their thesis realize. After the three previous exhibitions revolved around the themes of the uncanny, the game and the individual as a chamber of curiosities, the three young curators Amy E. Brown, Alejandro Alonso Díaz and Rosie Snaith used the means of metafiction in Falling Fiction to approach the collection .

A Book of Burning Matches

From March 14th to May 24th, 2015 the me Collectors Room Berlin presented the exhibition A Book of Burning Matches: Collecting Installation Art Documents . The exhibition examines the importance of documentation in installation art and presents the collection of extensive documents that the London-based curators Nicolas de Oliveira (Germany / Portugal) and Nicola Oxley (Great Britain) have compiled over three decades.

Queensize

From December 7, 2014 to August 30, 2015, the me Collectors Room Berlin / Olbricht Foundation presented exclusively female artists from the collection for the first time under the title Queensize - Female Artists from the Olbricht Collection . With almost 60 positions, the exhibition brings together a third of the female artists represented in the collection. The around 150 works shown in a wide variety of media are by artists such as Helene Appel, Louise Bourgeois , Nathalie Djurberg , Marlene Dumas , Klara Kristalova, Sükran Moral, Elizabeth Peyton , Patricia Piccinini , Cindy Sherman , Taryn Simon , Carolein Smit and others. v. a.

A Man Walks Into a Bar

"If a man comes into a bar ..." Unmistakable: A joke follows. The unusual collection of artist postcards A Man Walks Into a Bar couldn't be more aptly titled. Drawn, written or glued by artists, postcards with personal favorite jokes form the varied content of the exhibition, which was on view from January 25 to February 22, 2015 in the me Collectors Room Berlin .

EXOTICA and 4 other cases of the self

From September 17, 2014 to January 16, 2015, the exhibition revolved around the question of the self in our time and used the Wunderkammer Olbricht as an integral part. In the exhibition, the individual is viewed as a cabinet of curiosities and its five classic categories are applied to humans and redefined into instincts, simulacra, spirit, peculiarities and exotic.

Fragile Sense of Hope - Art Collection Telekom

For the first time, from October 10 to November 23, 2014, Deutsche Telekom presented parts of its collection, the Art Collection Telekom, under the title Fragile Sense of Hope in the me Collectors Room Berlin . The exhibition showed works by Mihuț Boșcu Kafchin, Danica Dakić, Stanisław Dróżdż, Petra Feriancová, Igor Grubić, Aneta Grzeszykowska, Nilbar Güreş, Petrit Halilaj, Vladimír Houdek, Šejla Kamerić, Ali Kazma, Genti Korini, Eva Kotátková , Ciprian Mureșan, Vlad Nancă, Paul Neagu, Paulina Ołowska, Roman Ondák, Dan Perjovschi, Agnieszka Polska, Nedko Solakov, Mladen Stilinović and Nil Yalter.

Stanze / Rooms - Works from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection

From May 2 to September 21, 2014 the me Collectors Room Berlin presented the collection of Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo from Turin . Under the title Stanze / Rooms , the Italian collector is showing her view of the international art scene for the first time in Germany. Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo is one of the most important private collectors of contemporary art in Europe. Her collection, which has been built up since the early 1990s, today consists of more than 2000 contemporary works in a wide variety of media by emerging and internationally renowned artists. The Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection has already been shown in numerous museums in Italy, France, Spain, Austria, Poland and England. The collaboration with the Olbricht Foundation began in 2013 when the Olbricht Collection with Gerhard Richter's editions was hosted in the rooms of the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin.

PAPERWORLDS

In the PAPERWORLDS exhibition in the me Collectors Room from January 21 to June 29, 2014, the curators Valeska Hageney and Sylvia Volz showed over 60 children's and youth drawings by today's internationally active artists. 19 contemporary artists, including Norbert Bisky , John Bock , Andy Hope 1930 , Jonathan Meese , Tal R , Katja Strunz, Rosemarie Trockel and Thomas Zipp , provided insight into drawings and pictures that were created between the ages of 3 and 14.

Kind regards, Thomas Schütte

From September 2013, Greetings from Thomas Schütte gave an insight into the works of Thomas Schütte from the Olbricht Collection. Schütte is considered one of the most important sculptors in Germany. In addition to the sculptural work, his oeuvre also includes numerous prints, which with over 200 works formed the focus of the exhibition. In addition, some sculptures and works on paper were shown. The timeframe of the works on display ranged from the 1980s to 2013.

PLAY - The Frivolous and the Serious

PLAY - The Frivolous and the Serious (May 16 - August 18, 2013) revolved around the phenomenon of gaming. The exhibition was the result of a collaboration between the Olbricht Foundation and two students from the Masters program in Curating the Contemporary at London Metropolitan University in cooperation with the Whitechapel Gallery, London, under the direction of Nico de Oliveira. For the second time, the foundation invited young curators to develop their own view of the Olbricht Collection and to curate an exhibition in the me Collectors Room Berlin as part of their thesis .

Wonderful

Wonderful - Humboldt, Krokodil & Polke was the ninth exhibition in the me Collectors Room Berlin . From November 29, 2012 to August 25, 2013, new additions to the Wunderkammer and contemporary works from the Olbricht Collection were shown, which also revolved around the theme of the Wunderkammer.

ART & TOYS - Collection Selim Varol

From May 26th to October 14th 2012 the me Collectors Room Berlin presented the collection of Selim Varol. The collector of Turkish origin from Düsseldorf has been collecting toys since childhood and has one of the largest of these collections in Europe with around 15,000 figures. Another focus of the collection is the work of artists who have their origins in street art and “pop surrealism”. All of the works in the collection are characterized by the close connection between art and everyday life and their often playful, humorous or subversive character.

Through the Looking Glass

The exhibition Through the Looking Glass was the result of a collaboration with three young curators of the Masters program Curating the Contemporary at the London Metropolitan University in cooperation with the Whitechapel Gallery, London , under the direction of Nico de Oliveira. Through the Looking Glass used the Wunderkammer in the me Collectors Room Berlin as an integral part of the exhibition. Wondrous objects, figures and anatomical models make it clear in a sometimes “uncanny” way that the body is something that can be manipulated and constructed. As a key concept for the exhibition, the uncanny takes many forms in contemporary artworks.

Gerhard Richter - Editions 1965–2011

Gerhard Richter is internationally recognized as one of the most important and successful contemporary German artists. In addition to his paintings, his editions have also become the focus of interest in recent years. The Olbricht Collection is the only private collection in the world that includes all of Gerhard Richter's editions. Parallel to the retrospective of Richter's oil paintings in the Neue Nationalgalerie on the occasion of his 80th birthday, the exhibition from February 12th to May 13th 2012 offered the unique opportunity to view the diverse oeuvre of his editions from 1965–2011 in Berlin at the same time to take.

My Paris - Collection Antoine de Galbert

From October 1, 2011 to January 8, 2012 the me Collectors Room Berlin presented the Antoine de Galbert collection. Galbert has been collecting contemporary art since 1987 with a conscious decision against the mainstream and certain trends. Folk art, “art brut” and religious objects complement his collection of contemporary works. At the same time as the exhibition in Berlin, La Maison Rouge presented the Thomas Olbricht collection in Paris . In 2004 Antoine de Galbert opened La Maison Rouge, his own exhibition space in Paris, parallel to his collection activities, which was finally closed in October 2018.

All cannibals?

A total of 100 works by around 40 international artists, mainly from private collections, were presented in the exhibition from May 29 to August 21, 2011, partly chronologically and partly thematically. The outline followed headings such as History, Myths & Fairy Tales, Solidarity of the Flesh, Goya and His Successors, and Sacred and Secular Cult. The exhibition raised the question of whether we as humans are not all potential cannibals.

X-RATED: William N. Copley and Andreas Slominski

William N. Copley's (1919–1996) paintings are, as the title suggests, “adult” scenes that were first exhibited in 1974 at the New York Cultural Center and now - over 30 years later - shown for the first time in Europe . Parallel to Copley, the me Collectors Room Berlin showed new works from the group of works “xyz. erotic vol. ”by Andreas Slominski (* 1959).

王 Ouyang Chun - PAINTING THE KING

The me Collectors Room Berlin offered a premiere with the exhibition 王 Ouyang Chun - PAINTING THE KING from October 2, 2010 to January 9, 2011. For the first time, the artist , who was born in Beijing in 1974, was honored outside of China with an institutional solo exhibition and his first time was between 2006 and the 2009 cycle “King” presented to the public.

Passion fruits picked from The Olbricht Collection

It was the first exhibition in the me Collectors Room Berlin . From May 1 to September 12, 2010, contemporary works from the Olbricht collection were shown, in which a conscious effort was made to achieve a balanced relationship between female and male artists. In a concentrated and expansive form, the exhibition reflected the concept of the collection spanning several epochs, supported by a consistent and unbroken trust in the communicative potential of artistic artefacts.

Wunderkammer Olbricht

In the permanent exhibition, over 300 exhibits are presented that focus on the subject of vanitas ("Remember that you are dying"). The pieces, mainly objects from the Renaissance and the Baroque , are intended to provide insights into the cognitive and technical knowledge of the time. The title refers back to the early modern period encountered (before) museum curiosities .

Wunderkammerschiff

The Wunderkammerschiff, the MS Franklin, has been a kind of mobile museum space on the waterways in Berlin and Brandenburg since 2016 in order to give as many children as possible access to art and cultural education.

Naming

The "me" stands for " m oving e nergies". Energy flows move people, the world and the universe. The collector Thomas Olbricht describes his art life and experience as a flow of energy. It is this dynamic that he shares with many people. The name of his exhibition house goes back to this request.