Boom She Boom
Works from the MMK Collection
19 October 2014–14 June 2015
MMK 2
TaunusTurm
Taunustor 1
60310 Frankfurt am Main
MMK 1
Domstrasse 10
60311 Frankfurt am Main
MMK 3
Domstrasse 3
60311 Frankfurt am Main
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm,
Wednesday 10am–8pm
T +49 69 21230447
F +49 69 212 37882
mmk [at] stadt-frankfurt.de
For the first time in Germany, a public museum is moving into an office skyscraper. The MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst Frankfurt am Main is opening its new branch—the MMK 2—in the TaunusTurm, in Frankfurt’s financial district. It is thus expanding its facilities by some 2,000 square meters of floor space for the presentation of its extensive collection of international contemporary art. The real estate developer Tishman Speyer and the Commerz Real AG are placing this space at the MMK’s disposal free of charge for rent and utilities for a term of 15 years. From now on, the museum will be present at three locations: the MMK 1 in the main building in Domstrasse 10, the MMK 2 in the TaunusTurm at Taunustor 1, and the MMK 3 in the former MMK Zollamt opposite the main building.
The MMK 2 presents a new exhibition approximately every half year in the TaunusTurm, featuring works from the collection from the perspective of current themes. Artworks from the MMK’s extensive holdings are related to contemporary issues and enhanced with new productions. Developed especially for the MMK 2, this exhibition concept combines elements of the collection display and the temporary thematic show. The change of presentations every six to eight months permits the development of multifarious scenarios and, in the long term, offer a means of helping hidden treasures of the collection to visibility and placing them in new contexts.
Boom She Boom
Works from the MMK Collection
The first exhibition at MMK 2 is dedicated to the women artists of the MMK Collection. Among Germany’s contemporary art museums, the MMK is unique in that, from its founding in 1991 to the present, it has directed special attention to women artists of the past decades. Since the 1990s, works by the major German women sculptors and concept artists of the present, for example Katharina Fritsch, Isa Genzken and Rosemarie Trockel, have been acquired for the collection, along with those of their colleagues abroad, including Vija Celmins, Marlene Dumas, Cady Noland and Sturtevant. The influence of these female artists on the development of the visual arts has been and is fundamental. With their radical and uncompromising approaches, they have shaped styles and, to this day, served the following generations as important examples. With such distinctive artistic positions as those of Jo Baer, Hanne Darboven und Charlotte Posenenske, the MMK Collection retraces the history of contemporary art back to the early 1960s. In the area of photography as well, one of the focuses of the museum’s collection, such prominent female protagonists as Barbara Klemm and Anja Niedringhaus are represented.
Major works by Vanessa Beecroft, Rineke Dijkstra, Bethan Huws, Teresa Margolles, Sarah Morris, Taryn Simon and others mark significant expansions of the collection, which more recently has been enhanced with work groups by artists presently in the limelight of the international art world, for example Andrea Büttner, Shannon Bool and Jewyo Rhii.
From the beginning, the MMK has also devoted itself to the Frankfurt art scene, and here as well the museum’s holdings are enriched by such individualist and radical perspectives as that of Parastou Forouhar, Anne Imhof, Franziska Kneidl and Adrian Williams. In addition, Tamara Grcic and Eva Kot’átková developed new works especially for this exhibition.
It is with the diversity and strength radiated by the works of these women artists that the MMK would like to celebrate its new presence in the center of Frankfurt between the station and financial districts. The selection will encompass various artistic techniques and conceptual approaches and present a wide range of issues and perspectives. In sculptures and installations, paintings and drawings, films and performances, the featured artists question the representation and societal connotation of the female body, concern themselves with social and global matters, investigate forms of narration and abstraction, and analyze strategies for the appropriation of space. Their works are distinguished by individual perceptions and personal experiences; they demonstrate subversiveness and the courage to be open.
Curated by Susanne Gaensheimer and Peter Gorschlüter
The MMK 2 has been made possible by the TaunusTurm, a joint venture of Tishman Speyer and the Commerz Real AG. The founding partners are Stefan Quandt, the Ernst Max von Grunelius-Stiftung, the Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen and the DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale. Further supporters are the MMK Stiftung, the Freunde des MMK and the New Contemporaries.
The inaugural exhibition Boom She Boom at the MMK 2 is being sponsored by the DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale and the Helaba Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen.
Open house
Opening of the MMK 2 on Sunday, 19 October, 2–6 pm
Free admission to the MMK 1, 2, and 3