BERLIN, GERMANY.- Hamburger Bahnhof presents the collection of Friedrich Christian Flick. The first presentation to be drawn from this comprehensive collection, and remaining on view until January 23, 2005, is a selection of approximately 400 works from all artistic domains: painting, sculpture, photography and installations. Covering more than 13.000 sq. m., this exhibition will fill galleries in the Hamburger Bahnhof itself, as well as those in the shipping halls, or so-called Rieckhallen.

 

Located adjacent to the main museum building, the halls will be connected to it by a bridge. Meanwhile, this first exhibition is only a prelude of things to come. Over the coming seven years, the entire collection will be presented to the public successively in rotating selections.

 

Accompanying the exhibition will be a comprehensive ca. 500-page catalogue, specially designed to present all artists and works included in this initial showing. This ambitious publication project is being designed by cyan, the celebrated Berlin graphics firm, and will appear in two editions, both published by SMB-DuMont. A special collector’s edition features an elaborate layout and unusual materials and papers, which attempt to do justice to the varying approaches of the individual artists. A standard edition with the same design will be priced affordably for the average museum visitor.

 

At the opening, each visitor will receive a complimentary newspaper, also designed by cyan. At the heart of this publication will be a wide-ranging conversation between collector Friedrich Christian Flick and curator Eugen Blume, one touching on all facets of the extraordinary collaboration between Flick and the Museum für Gegenwart. Many of the questions that have been a continuous source of controversy in the German media up to the present will be dealt with in this dialogue.