adminGerman culture is the culmination of a process that began with unification.
Until the fall of the Berlin Wall, the popular British perception of German culture involved either a stout opera singer in a horned helmet singing Wagner.
Much has changed in the intervening two decades, clubbers and fans of electronic music from the east and west come together to give Berlin its pounding “techno” soundtrack and “pyrotechnics” of the heavy metal band Rammstein.
The other factor is Berlin’s thriving sub-culture, which has made it the adopted home of artists from around the world, she says.
The range of Germany’s cultural influence, and the extent to which it has been embraced in the UK, will be revealed with a number of high-profile projects in London this summer.
From May, the Barbican will show Bauhaus: Art as Life, the biggest UK exhibition of the German modernist design school’s work for 40 years.
Later in the year the Serpentine Gallery will exhibit the work of German artists Thomas Schütte and Hans-Peter.
In June, the late choreographer Pina Bausch’s revered dance company Tanztheater Wuppertal is coming to Sadler’s Wells and the Barbican.
The next month, Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall will be filled with an installation by Tino Sehgal a Berlin-based artist whose works involve performers interacting with viewers, which Tate Modern’s director, Chris Dercon, describes as “almost like a mental and bodily exercise”.
All five projects have been supported by the Goethe-Institut, founded to promote German culture, to celebrate its London branch’s 50th anniversary and the reopening of its headquarters.
Dr Anja Baumhoff, lecturer in history of art and design at Loughborough University, who worked on the Barbican’s Bauhaus show and has lived in the UK for eight years, believes the 2006 World Cup helped popularise German culture beyond artistic and intellectual circles.
Now, she says, “the fact that Germany is playing such a big political and economic role means that people are interested in what we’re doing.
“It’s not just a globalised world, it’s a mobile world, and people are moving from the UK to travel back and forth from Berlin — it’s not a big deal.”
However, the artists themselves are less interested in representing Germany than exploring the ambiguities of being at the meeting point of several cultures.
The 50th anniversary of the Goethe-Institut is an international cultural platform that will illuminate the impact of cultural exchange.
- Dr Tony Monda holds a PhD in Post-Modern Art Theory and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) in Post-Colonial Art and Heritage Studies. He is also a practising artist, designer, art critic and corporate image consultant.
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