ZAK – Zentrum für Aktuelle Kunst
From autumn 2023 to spring 2024, the draftsman Matthias Beckmann was a guest at the Citadel almost every day in the exhibition "Unveiled. Berlin and its Monuments".
Image gallery
Fotoleuchten und Denkmäler, 2024, Bleistift und Aquarell
At a time when people around the world are thinking about how to deal with so-called "toxic" monuments and demanding a more critical approach to them, it was Beckmann's impulse to approach this topic artistically in his own individual way.
In the midst of the monuments from the 19th century to the present, he made drawings that show the collection in a new light. Because beyond all scientific classification systems, the artist focuses on other points of reference in order to approach both the content and the simple physical presence of the objects.
His characteristic drawing style, which is created from almost always equally strong contour lines and a few watercolor accents, reveals unusual perspectives on individual figures and groups, marking singularities in a mass of similarities. Specific viewpoints make it possible to experience photographic vision and create combinations whose associative potential brings out proportions, breaks, absurdities and the grotesque.
The idea of a show warehouse underlying the museum concept is deciphered insofar as the objects in the collection enter into relationships, weightings become apparent and sometimes absurd correlations arise. Beckmann's analytical image practice, on the one hand, advances to a decidedly subjective view of the political history that manifests itself in the monuments.
With the kind support of the district funding funds of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
Additional information
Price info: Free entry for people from the Ukraine.
Price: €4.50
Reduced price: €2.50
Reduced price info: children from 6 to 14 years – students – trainees – persons receiving transfer benefits (ALG II, social assistance, benefits under the Asylum Seekers Benefits Act) – persons with severe disabilities from 50% MdE upon presentation of the corresponding ID.
Public Tours in the Citadel Spandau
every 1st Sunday of the month at 2 p.m. in English
regular tours in German on Saturday and Sunday
at 2 p.m.
per person 4,50 € for the Tour
The latest information from the Spandau Citadel can be found on our website.
