"Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin. Die Kunst zweier Städte"

Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany

07. 06. 2006 - 03. 10. 2006

On the occasion of the Germany Year in Japan 2005/2006, the Nationalgalerie Berlin (National Gallery) and the Mori Art Museum Tokyo, supported by the Berlin Kunstbibliothek (Art Library), the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) and the Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst (Museum of East Asian Art), have organized a comprehensive art show with the title "Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin. Die Kunst zweier Städte".

Despite their geographical distance, for over a hundred years Berlin and Tokyo have been linked by historical and art historical connections which will now be highlighted for the first time in a representative exhibition.

Starting with Japonism, the connections lead via the avant-garde periodical Der Sturm, Dada, photography of the 1920s and the Bauhaus to an exchange during the years of National Socialism (particularly in the area of film). After the war, close connections - upheld through friendships between artist and DAAD exchange programmes - manifest themselves within Neo-Dada, Fluxus and 1980s installation art. The Upper Hall of the Neue Nationalgalerie (New National Gallery) is given over entirely to the most recent art and the subject of artistic interventions referring to the context of urban space.

For the architectural design of the Upper Hall, the Nationalgalerie is pleased to have been able to commission the Japanese architect Toyo Ito. He will transform Mies van der Rohe's glass temple into an exciting space, a completely new experience in which art and architecture enter an unusual fusion.

Author Text & in deutsch: Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin
A catalogue about this exhibition was published by the Nationalgalerie Berlin: