Hello World. Revising a Collection

"Hello World. Revising a Collection” has been an intensive and self-critical inquiry into the collection of the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and its predominantly Western focus: What had the collection possibly included today, had a global understanding characterised its concept of art and consequently also its genesis? How might the canon and the art historical narratives themselves have changed? And with what challenges does a global viewpoint confront the future of a museum collection? With these questions as starting points, the exhibition unfolded in more than ten thematic chapters as a many-voiced collaboration of internal and external curators, focusing on moments of transnational artistic exchange and transcultural entanglements from the 19th century until the present. “Hello World” encompassed the whole exhibition space of the Hamburger Bahnhof, taking works from the collection as points of departure to explore veiled narratives and open new perspectives on its holdings and history. 

Developed by Zdenka Badovinac, Sven Beckstette, Eugen Blume, Daniela Bystron, Clémentine Deliss, Jenny Dirksen, Anna-Catharina Gebbers, Natasha Ginwala, Udo Kittelmann, Gabriele Knapstein, Azu Nwagbogu, Melanie Roumiguière and Nina Schallenberg.