MuseumFutures: the future of museums between architecture, democracy, entertainment, power, and failure

Stuttgart/Berlin, 10.08.2020 ­­– The second Martin Roth Symposium entitled MuseumFutures will take place at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin from 7 to 11 September 2020. As part of a re:publica Theme Week, international experts from the cultural, academic, artistic, and political sectors will discuss the current situation and present challenges facing museums as well as examine visions for the future. Those attending include David Adjaye (United Kingdom), Inés de Castro (Argentina), David Chipperfield (United Kingdom), Bice Curiger (Switzerland), Hartmut Dorgerloh (Germany), Elvira Espejo (Bolivia), Pi Li (Hong Kong), Małgorzata Ludwisiak (Poland), Benita von Maltzahn (Germany), Robin Reardon (USA), Kavita Singh (India), Philip Tinari (China), Krzysztof Pomian (Poland), Johannes Vogel (Germany) and Marie Cecile Zinsou (Benin, tbc). This year, as initiator and organiser, ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) is cooperating with re:publica GmbH.

MuseumFutures

Hardly any other institution is as challenged and shaped by social and cultural change as the museum. It not only has a long tradition as a place of collective memory, it has an obligation to react to the rapidly changing expectations of the public in order to be able to be an innovative place of the future.

At ifa's (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) invitation, and for the first time together with re:publica, the Martin Roth Symposium will provide a central international space for dialogue around essential questions about the future of the museum:
Which role can museums play as agora of democratic societies? What will the museum space of the future look like? Will it focus on proximity to the audience or entertainment? How to safeguard freedom of the arts and science between politics and capital?

Over five consecutive days, the invited speakers will develop visions and strategies for the museum of the future together with the participants in a series of digital formats. On 11 September 2020, the last day of the re:publica Theme Week, the results will be gathered and discussed in an analogue workshop. Interested participants can register for the Corona-compliant, hybrid event, where discussions and synergies between the participants and the actors of the programme will be facilitated.

The following topics are planned:

• Museums and the Future: Museums as living spaces for a democratic, global, and open society, of representation and participation of all social groups.
• Museums and Architecture: Historical and future forms of the museum space in which the public and artefacts, stories and interpretations meet and interact.
• Museums and Failure: The importance of failure for museum self-reflection and the opportunities that learning from mistakes open for culture and society.
• Museums and Power: The function of the public and private museum in society and its role as a place for negotiating the prerogatives of interpretations.  
• Museums and Entertainment:  Accessibility, interaction, enjoyment, new tools and trends in the age of digitalisation.

The Martin Roth Symposium

In honour of Martin Roth (1955-2017), one of Germany's most innovative museum directors and cultural policy makers as well as the former president of ifa, experts from the cultural, academic, artistic, and political sectors gather biennially at the Martin Roth Symposium. Inspired by Roth's own progressive convictions, they come together to develop new ideas and visions for the future. The first symposium entitled What Can Culture Do? took place in Berlin in 2018.

The concept for this year's Martin Roth Symposium was developed in collaboration with an international committee and re:publica.

Committee members are Prof. Dr. Marion Ackermann, Nico Daswani, Prof. Dr. Kurt Forster, Dr. Andreas Görgen, Ronald Grätz, Benita von Maltzahn, Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Ulrich Raulff, Dr. Harriet Roth, Prof. Dr. Bill Sherman, Dr. Ellen Strittmatter, Prof. Dr. Johannes Vogel and Prof. Dr. Mariët Westermann.

This year's symposium is hosted by ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) in cooperation with re:publica and with Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

With the kind support of Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, funded by the Federal Foreign Office

More information is available at www.ifa.de/mars.

Press Contact

Politycki & Partner, Literature and Press Agency
Birgit Politycki, Tel. +49 40.4309315.12, bp(at)politycki-partner.de

ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)
Miriam Kahrmann, Tel. +49 151.26455.509, presse(at)ifa.de

re:publica
Rebecca Krum, Tel. +49 171.5761076, rebecca.krum(at)re-publica.com
 

About ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen)
ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) is Germany's oldest intermediary organisation for international cultural relations. Since 1917 it has been promoting a peaceful and enriching coexistence between people and cultures worldwide. ifa supports artistic and cultural exchange in exhibition, dialogue, and conference programmes, and it acts as a centre of excellence for international cultural and educational policy. It is part of a global network and relies on sustainable, long-term partnerships.
It is supported by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, the state of Baden-Württemberg and its capital Stuttgart.

About re:publica
re:publica Berlin is Europe's largest internet and digital society conference. At re:publica participants come together to discuss current issues and represent a cross-section of (digital) society, which include professionals from economics, politics, business, as well as bloggers, activists and artists. At the end of 2018, re:publica celebrated its Africa debut in Ghana’s capital, Accra with more than 2,000 participants. 2018-2019 republica GmbH was a strategic partner of "Deutschlandjahr USA", for which it organised the Sequencer Tour with five events in the United States. On 7 May 2020, re:publica took place for the first time as #rpREMOTE in a free one-day online conference at the online platform re-publica.tv. www.re-publica.com