Istanbul Modern's "Museums Talk" initiative will host Germany in collaboration with the Goethe Institute Istanbul as part of this year's program. Launched by Istanbul Modern in 2012, the "Museums Talk" program establishes a discussion platform between leading international museum professionals and museum audiences in Turkey, as well as audiences online from across the globe, previously focusing on art circles and museum in the United States and the United Kingdom. This year's program will welcome curators and museum directors of prominent art institutes in Germany, and will focus on how these institutions structurally function.
The first guest of "Museums Talk: From Germany" will be Max Hollein, the long-time director of the Stadel Museum, the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection and the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt. As a member of the Istanbul Modern International Consultative Committee, Hollein will deliver a speech about the museum as an institution and its visitors on March 25. Moreover, Yılmaz Dziewior, the director of the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, and Ellen Blumenstein, the chief curator of the KW Contemporary Art Institute in Berlin, will share their experiences at Istanbul Modern on April 22 and May 24, respectively.
During his speech on March 25, Hollein will draw attention to the transformation process that museums have undergone over the years as well as the expectations of museum visitors. Hollein believes that museums should appeal to people from different educational backgrounds and various interests in order to make the overall museum experience a highly enjoyable one. In his speech, he also emphasized that museums are not merely places to visit but also have an obligation to be accountable to the society. Furthermore, the "Museums Talk: From Germany" program will touch on various issues such as museum architecture and enlargement projects, different models for institutions, curatorship practices, programming and new approaches in museology.
