DRESDEN.- For the first time toward the end of 2023, the Kunstkammer Contemporary offered a view of the contemporary art holdings of the Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann as well as of other collections of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. With the second Kunstkammer Contemporary, the format is being further established as a new array of works takes the place of those from the first Kunstkammer Contemporary.

Every autumn, the Kunstkammer Contemporary is completely reconfigured, with a keyword serving as a through-line that informs the selection of works from the holdings of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. The keyword for the second Kunstkammer Contemporary, which runs from November 30, 2024, is “human.” And so, in the sculptures, paintings, graphic and video works, the exhibition will focus on what is human.

Included are some very concrete thematizations of the human. The nude, a classic subject in art, is shown in numerous variations: in a collection of graphic art, as a large-format nude photograph by Craigie Horsfield, as a photographic portfolio by Gundula Schulze-Eldowy, or in an unsettling drawing by Cloe Piene. Tracey Emin, for her part, had herself locked in a gallery space and photographed as she painted in the nude. In this way, she reflected her role as both woman artist and muse, the traditional source of inspiration for generally male painters.

Part of art is staging, is the pose, as shown here, for example, in a double portrait that Andy Warhol created of Erika and Rolf Hoffmann. Made up like a model and glittering with diamond dust, the female patron is rendered an icon in the artist’s portrait.

The second Kunstkammer Contemporary also reflects on the relationship of the human with the divine. In his bronze sculpture, Emil Cimiotti shows us Daphne, who can only escape the lust of the god Apollo by turning into a laurel bush. Uwe Piller turns to the famous motif found on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome: God and Adam reach out their hands to each other. In Piller’s version, it is only the hand of Adam that is depicted on the ceramic tiles as the artist asks: what is man who creates himself from himself alone?

Above and beyond concrete, graspable forms, the exhibition asks the fundamental question: what defines humanity? Certainly, it is empathy and the capacity to love, but also fallibility, striving for power, and egoism. How is the human different from the inhuman, from the monstrous, but also from the artificial?

Cornelia Schleime shows the traitor connected to an unknown person by a cable that runs through his mouth. Frank Maasdorf notches the terror of war into his wooden sculpture, adding red paint, while Detlef Reinemer’s Heretic juts upward into the air like a metal spearhead.

Abstraction comes into play with Frank Stella, whose painting Concentric Squares, rather than depicting human beings, focusses on their perception and reaction to art.

Dorothée Brill, Head of the Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann, says, “With Kunstkammer Contemporary, we embrace the idea of opening our storage to the public. Our aim is to make visible the entire breadth, our wealth of contemporary collections, and to ensure at the same time that the works’ quality, their connections and references are illuminated.”

The configuration of the space comes from the designer Konstantin Grčić. His design is modular and flexible, a wall-spanning scaffold-like structure that recalls the configuration of a storeroom and can be changed as necessary to accommodate the exhibited artworks. Inspired by industrial architecture, the modular elements leave the existing space untouched – a respectful treatment of the pre-existing architecture of the Dresden Residenzschloss.

Konstantin Grčić’s design also includes a Display Workshop which gives visitors insights into the conservation of the fragile materials used in contemporary art. Several times a week, the public is invited to watch the conservator while she works and have a conversation with her.

Throughout all of December, from Friday to Sunday, there will be so-called “transformers” present at the exhibition. They will engage in one-on-one conversations with visitors, asking them about their subjective view of the art and thus allowing the public to gain a unique understanding of the work through this engaged dialogue.

The second Kunstkammer Contemporary will be showing about seventy works from the Schenkung Sammlung Hoffmann, the Albertinum, the Kunstfonds, and the Kupferstich-Kabinett until November 2, 2025, presenting a multifaceted approach to what it means to be “human.”