The pursuit of Modernism in the 21st century
An aesthetic search program

The new exhibition programme and the future activities of the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg are linked by an overarching theme: The pursuit of modernism in the 21st century. As a kind of ‘search program’, it sets out to explore the present and the future of the aesthetic principles of modernism with the aid of an in-depth publication and thematic exhibitions, and to present these in a sensuous and intellectual form.

A milestone on this journey of exploration is the exhibition Japan and the West. Fulfilled Emptiness 
(22 September 2007 - 27 January 2008). Reaching back historically to the second century BC, this display visualized the known but still surprising connection between the Japanese ‘beauty of emptiness’ and the quest for formal clarity in Western modernism. In the dialogical encounter with a different culture, the ‘journey’ into the East explored the roots of the Western tendency towards reduction and contemplated the future of this phenomenon of emptiness and minimalism in the age of globalization.

Our ‘aesthetic research programme’ got underway in 2006 with the exhibition ArchiSkulptur – Dialogues between Architecture and Sculpture from the 18th Century to the Present Day, which the new director, Markus Brüderlin, brought to Wolfsburg from the Fondation Beyeler, where he was previously Chief Curator, via the Guggenheim Museum (see exhibitions archive). Wolfsburg as the headquarters of a multinational corporation, the fulfilment of an urban vision and an industrial utopia, is itself a starting point and a touchstone for the museum’s new programmatic concept. In no other German city can global processes be reflected in such a complex manner on a local level.

The programme will include further exhibitions aimed at the promotion of intercultural dialogue; following an interdisciplinary approach, these will incorporate the fields of art, design, architecture, literature and theatre as well as science and technology. We are also planning a publication that will include a well-balanced selection of original contributions by prominent thinkers, designers, artists, writers and researchers who address the issue of the presence of modernism from many different angles.

For all the talk of postmodernism, the project of modernism has shown a high degree of sustainability. The overall direction of our programme is intended to provide a counterbalance to the fast pace of today’s world of art exhibitions and to secure the museum’s position in the longer term. This kind of programmatic positioning constitutes a new approach in both the art business and the culture industry. The ‘search program’ takes museum visitors on a journey and familiarizes them, both in terms of aesthetics and content, with the challenges of globalization.