“Everybody get off the sofa, there are no excuses.” If you believe the words of Bavaria’s Minister of State for Culture, Markus Blume, there is nothing better to do next Saturday than to visit Munich’s museums, galleries and churches during the Long Museum Night. Between 6 p.m. and 1 a.m. night owls can discover around 80 large and small institutions, special exhibitions, guided tours and concerts under the motto “More museum for everyone”.
Sudeten German Museum, Jewish Museum, NS Documentation Center
The Sudeten German Museum in Munich not far from the Gasteig opened just two years ago.
(Photo: Stephan Rumpf)
The Sudeten German Museum opened in Munich two years ago. The relatively young institution is dedicated to the history of the Sudeten Germans, i.e. the German-speaking population of the Bohemian and Moravian areas in what is now the Czech Republic. With the help of lasers, the massive building is illuminated for ten minutes at 10 p.m. and the complex story of the Sudeten Germans is told, about their expulsion, but also their role in National Socialism.
In addition to the colorful crash course, the special exhibition “Allerley Kunststück. Relief inlays from Eger” can be seen, which shows finely crafted wooden reliefs. In addition to the Sudeten German Museum, the NS Documentation Center and the Jewish Museum also draw attention to history. The documentation center offers tours through the exhibitions “Munich and National Socialism” and “To Be Seen. Queer Lives 1900-1950”. The latter documents the life and work of queer people in Germany. The Jewish Museum provides an unexpected insight with its exhibition “Heidi in Israel. A Search for Traces”. It highlights how Johanna Spyri’s famous children’s book has been received in Israel since 1944.
Schack Collection, Lenbachhaus
Icon of the Blue Rider: Franz Marc’s “Blue Horse I” from 1911 in the Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus.
(Photo: Lenbachhaus)
A selection from the collection of the Neue Pinakothek, which has been closed for renovation, starting with classical works through to works from the Romantic period to classical modern art, can currently be seen in the Schack Collection. In addition, of course, works by the private collector Adolf Friedrich von Schack, who loved copies of Italian masters from the 16th and 17th centuries such as Giorgione, Titian and Tintoretto, as well as history paintings and landscape paintings. Böcklin, Feuerbach, Spitzweg and Schwind can be seen, and not to forget Franz von Lenbach’s “Shepherd Boy” – the it-piece of the collection. Of course there is more from Lenbach in Munich’s Lenbachhaus on Königsplatz, where the historic rooms are always worth a visit. The main emphasis in the municipal museum are of course the works of the Blue Rider such as Marc, Macke, Klee, Münter, Jawlensky and Kandinsky, the extensive Beuys collection and the significant exhibitions of contemporary art.
Espace Louis Vuitton, Five Continents Museum
The wonderful black and white photographs by Zanele Muholi are currently on display at the Espace Louis Vuitton.
(Photo: ©Zanele Muholi Courtesy of the Fondation Louis Vuitton)
Louis Vuitton’s Espace art space hosts the “From South Africa” exhibition, which features two South African photo positions: Zanele Muholi and David Goldblatt. Goldblatt’s color landscape photographs deal with the history of the relationship between the South African people and their country before and after apartheid. Muholi portrays the South African LGBT scene. The former ethnological museum, today the “Five Continents Museum”, is dedicated to art and cult objects from other cultures, such as Africa, Myanmar, North America, the Orient, Oceania and South America. The sculptures and black-and-white etchings by the contemporary Syrian artist Simone Fattal can also currently be seen. Around 9 p.m., a Sezgin Inceel/Stas Mishchenko duo will play acoustic folk with electro and jazz elements.
Patent Office in “Pschorr 8”
Tomás Saraceno’s “Flying Garden (M32)” in Pschorr 8.
(Photo: Rainer Viertlböck)
Is it possible to live in the clouds at some point in the future when the earth gets too crowded? Argentinian installation artist Tomás Saraceno asked himself this cloudy question when he created his work “Flying Garden”. The fragile structure floats, fixed by ropes and wires, in the huge entrance hall of the Patent Office building on Hackerbrücke. While many are familiar with the main location of the European Patent Office in Munich, the glass building on the Isar, the “Pschorr 8” on the Hackerbrücke is less well known: During the Long Night, around 50 works can be seen publicly there for the first time, at which otherwise only employees can enjoy. A certain examination of questions from natural sciences and technology was the requirement for works of art that found their way into the collection. Like an installation by the Austrian artist Paul Leitner, who translates his fascination with everyday devices into works that play with unexpected effects: For an installation in “Pschorr 8”, Leitner placed four light bulbs behind a row of 50 thermometers. The thermometers record the temperature of the heat emitted by the light bulbs, creating a kind of picture. The viewer also completes this picture, because one of the lamps is connected to a motion detector and only lights up as soon as someone approaches the work of art. You shouldn’t miss the tour: On October 16, the doors of “Pschorr 8” will be closed to the public again.
Sacred Heart Church
A composition by Mathias Rehfeldt can be heard in the Herz-Jesu-Kirche.
(Photo: Hartung/Trenz)
The Lamentations of Jeremiah, part of the Old Testament and Book of Tanakh, tell of the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Tears, sighs and shock run through the five chapters, which are recited in Christian and Jewish tradition during Holy Week and at the Western Wall. For the composer Mathias Rehfeldt, they provide the basis and inspiration for his work “Oratio”, which will be performed in front of an audience for the first time at 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. in the Herz-Jesu-Kirche. The piece with soloists, choir and the Bavarian State Orchestra not only sets the mourning for Jerusalem to music. In the touching piece, Rehfeldt shows the deep shock of the abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. Together with 100 artists from various sectors and those affected, Rehfeldt’s musical contribution takes a position as part of the project “Here we are – abused. Betrayed! Hope?” Archdiocese of Munich and Kulturmanagement Freising against abuse.
House of Art
The neon work “Wolf Lights” by Joan Jonas at Haus der Kunst.
(Photo: © Joan Jonas / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn)
Anyone who would like to see contemporary works will find the American video artist Joan Jonas in Haus der Kunst. Her largest exhibition in Germany to date shows the video “Wolf Lights” in the entrance area of the museum: a dancer with a wolf mask in animalistic poses in front of the glaring neon lights of Las Vegas. The “Rivers to the Abyssal Plain” indoors only came about last year after 86-year-old Jonas began exploring marine ecosystems.
BMW Museum, MVG Museum
The MVG Museum deals with the history of Munich’s local transport.
(Photo: MVG Museum)
High-tech and classic car fans are in good hands at the BMW Museum: In addition to the regular permanent exhibition, there is the newly opened temporary exhibition “Reimagine” to explore in the rotunda next to the main building – the so-called “Bowl”. Iconic vehicles from BMW and the subsidiary brands Mini and Rolls-Royce will be on display. At the end of the evening there will be DJing, and Tommy Reeve from Munich will be singing pop melodies. The MVG Museum deals with the 160-year history of local transport. In a former repair shop for trams, the museum shows historic vehicles. The special exhibition “Olympia” provides information about the construction of the subway in Munich, which first appeared many decades after the tram network: The subway network in Munich was really tackled for the Olympic Games – and the city with it given an important boost in development for the future.
Alte Pinakothek, Glyptothek
The special exhibition “Beyond Hellas” provides insights into the work of Santiago Calatrava in the Glyptothek.
(Photo: State Collections of Antiquities and Glyptothek Munich)
More than 20 years ago, Santiago Calatrava stood in front of a sculptural group in the Glyptothek that shows scenes from the Trojan War. The sculptures from the ancient temple of the Greek goddess Aphaia inspired the Spanish-Swiss architect so much that he created modern versions of the warriors. Unusual, delicate and strong at the same time, Calatrava’s wrought-iron figures stand darkly amidst the Glyptothek’s white sculptures. The exhibition is the first dedicated to Calatrava’s sculptural and painterly oeuvre. There is more from antiquity on the other side of Königsplatz: in the State Collections of Antiquities, art and everyday objects from the Greeks, Romans and Etruscans can be seen. Jewellery, vases and bronzes, some of which were made 5000 years ago, connect the visitors of 2022 with their ancestors. The picture gallery of the Alte Pinakothek is much younger, but no less impressive. Her works are among the most outstanding in Europe.
bus tours
Munich’s urban areas with a high concentration of museums are easily accessible thanks to five bus routes specially organized for Museum Night: All tours start close to the city center and stop in front of up to 30 exhibition locations. The central stops also offer transfer options from one tour to another. The “downtown” tour takes you around the old town – with a detour to Sendling. The “West” tour leads from the NS Documentation Center to the Museum of Man and Nature in Nymphenburg. Nymphenburg Palace connects the “North” line with the BMW Museum in Nordschwabing. Further south, the “Schwabing” tour leads from the Amerikahaus via the Pinakothek district to the LMU. The “East” tour takes visitors from the museum hub on Prinzregentenstraße to the important addresses in the east of Munich and then back in the direction of the city center to the Deutsches Museum.
Long night of the Munich museumsSat., Oct. 15, information at muenchner.de/museumsnacht