Let’s Demonstrate! – Ulm School of Design 1968

In 1968, the year of the student movement, the Ulm School of Design (HfG) was closed. An ambitious educational project of the early years of the Federal Republic of Germany had come to its close.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s the city of Ulm had develloped into a cultural and political hotspot in the Federal Republic of Germany, not least because of the avantgarde design school and the impact it had.

Members of the Ulm School of Design had tried to establish a new world, with social equality, good living conditions in a well designed environment.

In 1968 the still young Federal Republic was shaken not only by the students’ revolt. For the first time since the beginning of the economic boom after World War II (Wirtschaftswunder) the economic growth stagnated. In addition to that a discussion sprang up about the role of industrial design within modern consumer society.

This discussion continues until today. Briefly before its closure the Ulm School of Design debated these ideas itself. 50 years later an exhibition will look at the events on and around the Kuhberg.

Publication in preparation.

22nd Art Triennial Ulm

From July 07 to September 23, 2018 the BBK – Ulm e.V, the Kunstverein Ulm, the Künstlergilde Ulm e.V. and the Museum Ulm are organising the 22nd Art Triennial Ulm at the Museum Ulm. This platform for Ulm artists was created in 1955 by the then museum curator Herbert Pée to provide an insight into the artistic work of the region. With the motto “Why Art?” all artists born in Ulm, Neu-Ulm, Alb-Donau-Kreis or in Landkreis Neu-Ulm were invited to submit their applications with works created in the past three years.

The motto of the 22nd Art Triennial Ulm is based on the simultaneous exhibition in Museum Ulm and kunsthalle weishaupt, in which everything revolves around the question of where the human need for design and art creation lies. The applications were judged by an independent jury consisting of art scientists, artists and curators.

An accompanying catalogue will be published for the exhibition.

Why Art?

One of the most spectacular discoveries in archaeology, the 40,000-years-old lion man, the largest sculpture of Ice Age art and the oldest depiction of a mythical creature, is on display at Museum Ulm. It was discovered in the Hohlenstein-Stadel in the Lonetal near Ulm, one of six caves in the Swabian Jura, which is regarded as one of the most important findspots of human-made art and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.

The declaration of the caves with the oldest Ice Age art as UNESCO World Heritage Sites creates an ideal occasion for an exhibition that dives into one of the big questions in human history, the question of what drives the urge for artistic creation and of the significance of art for the various cultural nations up to this date.

The joint exhibition of Museum Ulm and kunsthalle weishaupt explores the question of the why, of the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to create art. It investigates what may be the existential benefit humans gain through the independent act of artistic creation. It presents examples from the art’s past and present. Avoiding a Eurocentric point of view, it also investigates the respective categories of non-Eurpean art practices.

The exhibition is accompanied by an extensively illustrated publication, as well as by an extensive programme of public events.

An exhibition project by Museum Ulm in cooperation with kunsthalle weishaupt.