Mission statement and History
The Weserburg Museum für moderne Kunst is the institution in Bremen that is dedicated to international contemporary art. A lively investigation of artistic production from the 1960s to the present is made possible by a succession of shows devoted to individual artists along with group exhibitions featuring a thematic orientation, as well as by a presentation of the museum’s collection and a wide variety of accompanying programs. Furthermore, with the Centre for Artists’ Publications the Weserburg is home to an extensive holding—one of a kind in Europe—of edited, multiplied and published artworks from throughout the world—ranging from postage stamps past artist’s books, Mail Art, films and records all the way to multimedia editions.
The Weserburg is a dynamic site for encountering contemporary art. We have adopted a stance in which aesthetic experience and critical reflection are possible in equal measure. In our museum, not only can visitors contemplate art; they can also develop new perspectives, reflect upon social contexts, and engage in self-actualization.
Values
The Weserburg conceives of itself as a place for strengthening democracy, promoting dialogue, and pursuing critical investigation. It attunes its activities in accordance with openness, multiperspectivity, communality, and sustainability. We put great value in respectful contact and transparent communication. We acknowledge the right of others to have their personal opinion, but we offer no space at all for antidemocratic or misanthropic positions. We assure that our activity promotes sustainability by assuming responsibility, conserving resources in a wide variety of areas, making art accessible to a wide audience, and preserving it for the future. All these values serve as the basis for all our actions.
Focus Points
As the first collectors’ museum in Europe, the work of the Weserburg is characterized in particular by its collaboration with private and corporate collections. In working with them as well as in handling our own collection, our presentations are inclusive and multiperspectival. We critically examine Eurocentric points of view and deliberately focus on areas that up to now have been underrepresented or assert an altered perception. We preserve our own works of art in a responsible manner and cultivate an awareness of the developmental history of our institution. In this endeavor, we give thought simultaneously to technical, social, and ecological aspects, and we guarantee that works of art, archives, and digital data all remain secure.
We consider our exhibitions to be spaces in which different perspectives come to light with regard to the present era and the current state of the world. We seek to disallow any arbitrary control of narratives and to facilitate novel and surprising approaches. Our aim is not only to present art, but to enable it to be experienced in an exchange among various perspectives. We maintain this stance beyond the exhibitions themselves: We view our outreach
program as a social space for encounter, dialogue, and discourse concerning the social issues of the future.
Our work evinces a critical attitude towards power structures and acts of discrimination with an aim of facilitating access, conveying divergent perspectives, and telling stories that have heretofore gone unheard. We understand outreach to be a participatory process that promotes listening, shared shaping, and reflection. Together with individuals, communities, and partners within the city’s society, we have established an open, inclusive, and socially relevant museum.
Especially at the Centre for Artists’ Publications, research is an underlying focus of the work we do. Our collections and archives meet this criterion; knowledge is preserved and new interconnections are identified. The findings of our research are shared transparently in publications, digital formats, and educational offerings.
Working Culture
We collaborate as a team towards common goals. Each person contributes their experiences, perspectives, and areas of expertise. Together we develop an understanding for values, patterns of behavior, and working methods, then fill them with life. We support each other in challenging situations and resolve conflicts in a candid and constructive manner. We generate and enjoy a culture of genuine cooperation and mutual trust.
History of the Museum
On 14 November 1988, the foundation “Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen” was established through a resolution passed by the city parliament of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. The founding members were the municipality of Bremen, the Kunstverein in Bremen as well as the collectors Hans Grothe, Anna and Gerhard Lenz, Reinhard Konisch and Hartmut Ackermeier. The renovations of the building complex proceeded according to the plans of the Bremen architect Wolfram Dahm.
Thomas Deecke (1991 to 2005)
On 6 September 1991, the Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen was opened in the old warehouses under the direction of Prof. Dr. Thomas Deecke. The museum was an ab-solute innovation in Europe. For the first time, the concept was realized of a collectors’ museum in which the permanent exhibition would consist solely of works from private lenders. The energetic commitment of Thomas Deecke made it possible to establish a long-term connection between the institution and several outstanding collections from Germany and abroad. Since then, 5000 square meters of exhibition space have been used regularly to display works of contemporary art in numerous exhibitions and collection presentations. Mention should be made of successful exhibitions such as “Die Kunst und das schöne Ding” (1955), “Picasso, Guston, Miró, de Kooning” (1997) as well as “Fondation Maeght. Südliche Kunst unter nordischen Himmel” (2003). Moreover, many exhibitions that were developed by the curators of the Weserburg were subsequently taken over by well-known museums. For example, the exhibition “Minimal Maximal” (1999) went on tour from Spain all the way to Japan (2001) and Korea (2002).
Carsten Ahrens (2005 to 2013)
On 1 November 2005 Carsten Ahrens took over the museum. On 1 January 2007 his proposal was implemented to change the name of the institution to “Weserburg Museum for moderne Kunst.” His solo exhibitions on Jörg Immendorff (2007) and Helmut Newton (2008) were popular successes; with presentations on the artistic output of Stankowski (2007) or the thematic exhibition “Freibeuter der Utopie” (2011), he was able to open the Weserburg to a wider public. Under his directorship, there also began the collaboration with the kek Kindermuseum which, with its thematically varying, participatory exhibitions, ushered many young persons into the museum. Moreover, Carsten Ahrens brought into the Weserburg the exhibition of the master pupils of the Hochschule für Künste Bremen; this series, together with the Karin Hollweg Prize, makes an important contribution to supporting young artists and continues to be presented each year at the Weserburg right up to today. It was likewise under the direction of Carsten Ahrens that the most difficult phase in the history of the museum occurred. In order to put the institution’s finances on a firm footing over the long term, the foundation Neues Museum Weserburg Bremen decided to sell works from its own collection and thereby to set up a “fund for the future.” In November 2010 Gerhard Richter’s painting “Matrosen” (1966) and the painting “Lucia-no 1” (1976) by Franz Gertsch were auctioned off. A total of 51 works of art were transferred through private involvement to the holdings of the Kunsthalle Bremen. In addition, Carsten Ahrens initiated a debate concerning an altered location for the museum which continued for a number of years. He left the Weserburg in June 2013.
Peter Friese (2013 to 2018)
Peter Friese became the provisional successor to Carsten Ahrens. A curator at the Weserburg over many years, he concentrated on the institution’s obligation, formulated in the statutes of the foundation, to exhibit art of the 20th and 21st centuries from private collections. On 11 June 2015, Peter Friese was named director and continued in the direction he had embarked upon since 2013: the presentation of large, special exhibitions, on themes of contemporary relevance, which are generated primarily out of the collections themselves and are directed towards a wide audience—for example, “Kaboom. Comic in der Kunst (2013) and “Land in Sicht 400 Jahre Landschaftsbilder” (2015) or “Cindy Sherman” (2018). Moreover, “Young Collections” (2014-2018) was an exhibition series which featured young, private collections that had not yet been presented to the public in this form. This program established connections to young collections that since then have collaborated closely with the Weserburg, including the Dominic and Cordula Sohst-Brennenstuhl Collection (Hamburg), the Von Kelterborn Collection (Frankfurt), the Ivo Wessel Collection (Berlin), the Christian Kaspar Schwarm Collection (Berlin) and the Florian Peters-Messer Collection (Rhineland). It is thanks to the endeavors of Peter Friese that the art patrons Karin and Uwe Hollweg particularly enriched the Weserburg in 2018. Together they accomplished no less than acquiring for the Weserburg and Bremen the Karl Gerstner Collection, one of the most important collections of works from Fluxus and Nouveau Réalisme. And not only that — the purchase of the Sound Collection Guy Schraenen, one of the most important collections of its kind in the world, was made possible by the Hollwegs along with the Kulturstiftung der Länder. At the end of September 2018, Peter Friese entered retirement.
Janneke de Vries (since 2018)
Janneke de Vries has been the new director of the Weserburg since 1 October 2018.
History of the Building
The old warehouses of the Weserburg have a long, dynamic history behind them. Before the building came to house art, it contained a tobacco factory and later the coffee-roasting facility Gebrüder Schilling. In 1893 the cigar factory Ad. Hagens Co. purchased the warehouses no. 20 completed on the Teerhof by the C. Poppe company and in 1897 built the so-called Hagensburg. The building was realized under the direction of the architect Johann Rippe and was the spectacular culmination of construction on the Teerhof before the Second World War. It was especially the two Neo-Gothic gateway towers that broke up the natural uniformity of the rows of warehouses and served as eye-catchers, especially when viewed from the Kaiserbrücke (today called the Bürgermeister-Smidt-Brücke).
In 1923 the coffee-roasting company Gebrüder Schilling bought the building complex, where it thenceforth engaged in the import, roasting and distribution of coffee. When coffee began to be roasted there, the name Hagensburg was changed into Weserburg. During the Second World War, the buildings on the Teerhof were severely damaged. In 1944 after the 159th bombardment, they lay for the most part in ruins; the Weserburg had been almost entirely destroyed. It was possible already in 1949 to rebuild it, whereupon the Schilling company resumed coffee-roasting. In 1973 the company with so long a tradition had to close down its coffee operations after fifty years; it sold the Weserburg to the municipality of Bremen.
In the following years, the building was taken over by the cultural scene. Artists set up studios; the Moks-Theater and the Städtische Galerie found new free spaces here. Altogether the building was home to more than twenty cultural and social facilities. The GAK Gesellschaft für Aktuelle Kunst likewise found a domicile in the former coffee-roasting plant. It was during one of its exhibitions, a presentation of works by Edward Kienholz from the Onnasch Collection, that the idea arose of establishing a collectors’ museum for Bremen. It would take several years, however, until the plan was brought to fruition.