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No Showing of Flick Collection without a Critical Parallel Exhibition |
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AICA on the Berlin Presentation of Friedrich Christian Flick’s Art Collection The International Association of Art Critics (AICA) has spoken out against showing the works of the Flick collection in the Berlin Museum of Contemporary Art without an independent, critical parallel program, including an autonomous documentary exhibition. AICA addressed its appeal in equal measure to the Berlin Senate, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and the director general of Berlin’s state museums. In Cologne, AICA President Walter Vitt stated that the German AICA was in agreement with the “Förderverein Dokumentation Zwangsarbeit”, an association which promotes the documentation of forced labor, in arguing that the Flick art collection may become a part of Berlin’s cultural landscape only if it also sheds light on the historical background and marked responsibility associated with the Flick family name. The point is not to keep the Flick collection away from the public, but it is necessary to create a coinciding critical forum to present the Flick family history and the involvement of the company in the crimes of the National Socialist regime, as well as to document the exploitation of hundreds of thousands of forced laborers. It is the opinion of AICA that the parallel program must include a comprehensive documentary exhibition on the issue of forced labor, as well as on the collaboration of the company with the Nazi regime. The Association of Art Critics expects Berlin’s culture senator Thomas Flierl to entrust independent experts with the concept for this program. Recently, the intention was expressed to commission a study at the Munich Institute of Contemporary History, and to publish a "taboo-free discussion" between curator Eugen Blume and the collector in an exhibition pamphlet. The AICA declaration calls these the first small steps by the Foundation for Prussian Cultural Heritage in fulfilling their responsibility. Unfortunately, both the cooperation of the Flick family and the study’s completion date have been left up in the air. It can therefore be expected that the Friedrich Christian Flick collection, now bound to the Museum of Contemporary Art, will be shown without the publicly-demanded presentation of the historical background and marked responsibility. Cologne, 15 July 2004 |
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