PRESS RELEASE

21.10.2010

Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum opened in Cologne
Ethnological exhibition surprises with a thematically arranged layout full of intensity and magic

As of 23rd October, the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum is presenting its extensive ethnological collection with a new concept for the contents in a surprising scenographic setting. Stage-managed spaces, conceived and designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER from Stuttgart, entice the visitor into fascinating worlds full of intensity and magic.

“People in Their Worlds” is the title of the theme-based visitor routing through the exhibition, which reveals and displays itself in differentiated spatial narratives covering an area of 3,600 square metres. Around 2,000 exhibits are placed in theme-based spaces that have been allocated their own individual staged settings: “We want to make the exhibits speak, tell stories that move the visitor and create an experience that remains in the memory for a long time”, said Prof. Uwe R. Brückner, who developed the narrative dramaturgy of the new permanent exhibition with his multi-disciplinary team. A panopticum of coherent themes, generated from the museum's outstanding inventory, provides an authentic experience, whereby the scenography endows the culturally-comparative themes in the spaces with a three-dimensional language.

The exhibition designers have conceived a spatial, urban structure, developed from fundamental, reduced, geometrical elements. The line becomes an area and, finally, a space. A high-contrast alternation between the colours black and white serves as a link to the urban moments of architecture in the 20th century. Perspective axes open up into squares, are limited by closed cubes or become narrower to form alley-like passageways. Spatial constellations are thus created that lend rhythm to the constructed scenario and engage in a dialogue with the architecture.

In the foyer, the visitor is welcomed by the museum‛s emblem, a rice barn from Indonesia, which is accompanied by information modules where a preview of the entire route through the exhibition can be obtained. A prologue and an epilogue frame the pathway through the museum in the form of multi-media spatial installations that are designed in the same way. People from unfamiliar cultures welcome visitors here and, later, take their leave with the insight that they are all inhabitants of the city of Cologne together.

Historic Rice Barn - the museum‛s emblem.
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Cultures of the World.
Photo: Michael Jungblut

“A Matter of Perception and Opinion: Art.” Theme-based visitor routing “People in Their Worlds.”
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Cultures of the Word.
Photo: Michael Jungblut

“Living Spaces - Ways of Living: European Parlour.” Theme-based visitor routing “People in Their Worlds.” Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Cultures of the Word.
Photo: Michael Jungblut

“Intermediary Worlds: Rituals.” Theme-based visitor routing “People in Their Worlds.”
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Cultures of the Word.
Photo: Michael Jungblut

Transition, theme-based visitor routing “People in Their Worlds.”
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Cultures of the Word.
Photo: Michael Jungblut

Doors, theme-based visitor routing “People in Their Worlds.”
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Cultures of the Word.
Photo: Michael Jungblut

Epilogue, theme-based visitor routing “People in Their Worlds.”
Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum – Cultures of the Word.
Photo: Michael Jungblut

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CONTACT

ATELIER BRÜCKNER GmbH
Claudia Luxbacher
Press and Public Relations
T. +49 711 5000 77 126
F. +49 711 5000 77 22
presse(at)atelier-brueckner.com