Back to the 1980s and a little further: The Badisches Landesmuseum presents its annual program – and gives an outlook on a special highlight on the Reichenau.
Karlsruhe (dpa / lsw) – Punk and pop, awakening and apocalyptic mood: With an interactive exhibition “The 80s – They’re back!” The Badisches Landesmuseum wants to tie in with pre-Corona times. As director Eckart Köhne announced on Tuesday at the annual press preview, the museum had 118,000 visitors last year. That was 40,000 fewer guests than before the pandemic, which began in spring 2020. Compared to 2021, however, the numbers have almost tripled. “Visitors are slowly coming back to the museum,” said Köhne. “We see a positive development here, which we hope will continue.”
With the 80s show in the Karlsruhe Palace, the museum appeals to young and old alike: some are celebrating the revival, others have experienced the times themselves. The exhibition organizers see parallels to today not only in fashion, films and music. There is also déjà vus in the debates about crises and climate.
From June 17 (until February 25, 2024), around 300 exhibits will commemorate what the exhibition organizers believe is “perhaps the most important and eventful decade of German post-war history”. In addition to the Rubik’s Cube, Game Boy and ghetto blaster, the flowered helmet of Green Party politician Petra Kelly from Mutlang’s “celebrity blockade” against the stationing of medium-range missiles and a leather jacket from Scorpions singer Klaus Meine, which he wore in September 1989 when he performed in Moscow, will also be presented .
At the same time, the museum provides an insight into a major restoration project in a show workshop: an antique 1.23 meter high magnificent vase with mythological motifs is not only one of the most important pieces in the museum. The so-called underworld vase is also considered a highlight of ancient art and cultural history. “The special feature of this project is that it shows in an exemplary manner how conservation works today,” says curator Susanne Erbelding.
At the same time, the museum is looking for new ways to make the cultural heritage digitally accessible. At the end of March, users in the “Creative Museum” should be able to discuss questions such as: “Do tyrants have human rights?” At the same time, the new “Creative Exhibitions” app makes it possible to create your own digital exhibitions with 3D objects in front of the palace.
Museum director Köhne gave a foretaste of the highlight of the coming year: the large state exhibition “Monastery Island Reichenau” (April 20, 2024 – October 20, 2024) presents magnificent manuscripts from the famous Reichenau scriptorium. The valuables, which have been part of UNESCO’s world documentary heritage since 2003, were once written by monks from Reichenau and given to the powerful. In 2024, they will be gathered at Lake Constance for the first time in decades.
The show on the 1300th anniversary of the monastery island wants to use the latest research to shed light on the life of the monks: was there really only “ora et labora” (“pray and work”) and what was the early life of the monks really like? This is just one of many questions raised.
