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The Week in Germany: Culture September 14, 2007 Catholic Art Museum in Germany Mixes Modern and Medieval
A new museum exhibiting the Catholic archdiocese of Cologne's art collection and showinig modern art mixed with medieval treasures opens on Saturday (Sept. 15). A 14th-century altar with a shrine for relics, for instance, is exhibited alongside paintings by American pop artist Andy Warhol. Works by Josef Albers or Heinrich Campendock startle amid shimmering crosses and madonnas. The 4,500-square-meter Kolumba Museum was built on the foundations of a Cologne church, St. Columba, which was flattened by WWII bombing and never rebuilt.
The new building, by leading Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, follows the floor plan of the late Gothic church, with some of the ruins and an archaeological excavation on show inside. Zumthor said on Thursday (Sept. 13) tht he had kept the museum simple, unlike some contemporary museums given sensational shapes to pull in the crowds. "It's the opposite here. The people should come because of the art," he said.
Museum director Joachim Plotzek said the idea had been to prevent people thinking in terms of art epochs. "Showing very different artworks together is what makes it exciting," he explained. Kolumba replaces the old diocesan museum next door to the famous Cologne Cathedral. The old museum closed several months ago in readiness for the move. Until the end of the 18th century, the archbishop was a wealthy temporal
ruler and the archbishopric of Cologne was one of fragmented Germany's
powerful states. (TWIG/dpa) Links: Kolumba Museum |
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