Workshop und Pop-up Ausstellung, Buddenbrookhaus Lübeck

Team:

Vanessa Zeissig, scenographer (project management, idea and concept)

Katharina Adler, writer

Tilman Rammstedt, writer

Alicja Jelen/ please don’t touch, scenographer

Clemens Müller/ please don’t touch, scenographer

Margaret Schlenkrich/ Kollektiv »kaboom«, scenographer

Carolin Schmidt/ Kollektiv »kaboom«, editor

The project »A Rose is a Rose is an Onion. Über das Ausstellen von Literatur« (engl. »A Rose is a Rose is an Onion. On exhibiting literature«) was developed in the course of my doctoral thesis on literary exhibitions in the field of scenography/exhibition design at the University of Fine Arts of Hamburg (HFBK).

In a first-time cooperation, writers and scenographers were invited to discuss their perspectives on exhibiting literature with each other in a two-day workshop. While the academic field has been dealing with these issues for more than three decades, it is a new approach to involve and focus on the perspectives of authors and designers.

The results of the workshop were presented in a pop up exhibition in the literary museum Buddenbrookhaus in Lübeck on the International Museum Day 2019. The concept and design of the exhibition was planned and constructed during the second day of the workshop. It is based on three theses regarding the future of literary exhibitions, the issue of representation/personality cult and the freedom of interactions between artistic space and literary text.

In the course of the project, I hosted the evening event »Literatur trifft Szenografie: Gespräch und Lesung zwischen zwei Disziplinen« (engl. »Literature meets Scenography: Discussion and reading between two disciplines«). The panel discussion with the team members focused on artistic processes as well as on similarities and differences between the creative work of writing and designing. The event was framed by two readings of both writers.

As a (former) scholarship holder of the Zentrum für Kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung Lübeck (ZKFL), the project was realised as a cooperation between the ZKFL and the Buddenbrookhaus | Heinrich-und-Thomas-Mann-Zentrum Lübeck and funded as such. The documentation will be published in my doctoral thesis.

Video documentation: Beatriz Huélamo, videographer

Graphic design marketing: Magdalena Vollmer/raumstrategin.com (advice und concept), Vanessa Zeissig