30th Council of Europe Art Exhibition "The Desire for Freedom. Art in Europe since 1945" (Berlin, Tallinn, Milan, Cracow, 2012-2013)

Theme

The Exhibition “The Desire for Freedom” is a first attempt to look at art since 1945 in a pan-European context without the usual ideological limits which the Cold War initiated. Twelve chapters will explore the artists’ reflections about the ideals of universal human rights, freedom, equality and democracy.

Exhibits

The 200 exhibits come from almost all European countries from Portugal to Russia, from Scotland to Albania and Greece. Thus the exhibition also encompasses art from regions in Europe to which less attention has been paid and thus transcends the usual separation of art from East and West, North and South.

(Photo: Simon Vogel - Courtesy Kewenig Galerie Köln - Ian Hamilton Finlay "Je vous salue Marat")

Partners

The exhibition is initiated and coordinated by the German History Museum in Berlin in cooperation with seven museums, galleries, research and culture institutes in Germany, Poland, Estonia, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Czech Republic, Greece and Hungary. Apart from the main exhibition which will travel to Tallinn, Milan and Cracow, several themes of this show will be presented in ancillary exhibitions and discussed in workshops and conferences.

Catalogue

A 350-page catalogue will be published in English, German, Italian and other languages. The texts will be written by a wide range of historians, critics and curators from 30 countries who have also researched the artworks in their country. An eBook of 1000 pages in German/English with a long description of each work will be sold together with the printed version.

Education

Free kits for teachers and educational material for students and schoolchildren will be available, as well as special workshops at the various venues run by experienced teachers and based on the themes of the exhibition. Children will be offered the opportunity to share their creative proposals during the workshops. A programme with new educational formats for boys and girls at all types of schools will be developed. A project for evaluation, using different models of audience research to test visitors’ receptiveness to the ideas in the exhibition will be initiated. Furthermore a special educational programme for young children aged 3-6 years and a programme for presenting the project in the social media – e.g. via a special YouTube channel, blogs, Twitter, etc., which will target teenagers and young adults will be presented.

Exhibitions

Presentation

List of past exhibitions
Art Exhibitions Fact File

Video

Contact

Related activity

The exhibition has been realised with the support of the culture programme of the European Union.