Szenografie der Moderne
The theory and practice of the curatorial is a research focus of Prof. Kai-Uwe Hemken (Art History and Aesthetics), who has pursued this interest for years with exhibitions, VR and research projects (funded by: VW Foundation, University of Kassel, Thyssen Foundation, BMBF, Volksbank Kassel) and publications have followed this interest over the years. The first volume of a trilogy on curatorial scenography in the modern era has just been published.
At the beginning of the 20th century, scenography took its place alongside exhibition design, with architecture, the stage, art and science providing the inspiration. However, emancipation processes can be observed as early as the mid-18th century and increasingly in the 19th century. The demonstrably universal applicability of this design style and the diversity of its manifestations make it more than obvious to undertake a transdisciplinary examination. Modernism in particular demonstrates a willingness to transfer, allowing the museum or exhibition to adapt design modes from the trade fair, garden art or the department store.
This publication follows this basic idea in that the selection of source texts is not limited to the description of curatorial scenographies in museums, art collections or counterpart systems, but opens up a more cultural-historical perspective that includes competing media such as the panorama, passage, department store or trade fair. Travel descriptions of cultural sites or urbanities are also included in the publication in order to draw the attention of researchers to the literary aspect of scenography. For the transition from the documentary description of real scenographies, which were also created as such, to those that are only declared as such through observation, and finally to those that are recognizable as the product of imagination and through literary productions, is fluid.
As the title of this publication suggests, this collection of sources is part of a larger publication project. This anthology of primary texts from the past 200 years is followed by an inventory of contemporary scenographic positions. It concludes with a publication of academic texts on scenography in various fields. The trilogy is intended as a basic work that will serve as an introduction to the subject and as a starting point for further interdisciplinary research into scenography as a multifaceted medium of expression that is genuinely modern.