On the occasion of the Casper David Friedrich Year, the exhibition, curated by Celina Spieth, examines the legacy and relevance of Romanticism.
The transdisciplinary art project "Romanticism today?" at the Neues Kunsthaus Ahrenshoop is dedicated to the 250th anniversary of the birth of the important landscape painter Caspar David Friedrich.
The Romantic period shapes our thinking and language through its iconic images and narratives, which have long since become part of popular culture. In cooperation with the Künstlerhaus Lukas, students from the University of Greifswald and the Caspar David Friedrich Center, Kerstin Flake (Leipzig), Christian Frosch (Greifswald), Via Lewandowsky (Berlin), Ramona Schacht (Leipzig) and Cindy Schmiedichen (Greifswald) examine the legacy and topicality of Romanticism. They critically reflect on and deconstruct traditional images, figures, clichés and the consumption of Romanticism using their own artistic means between sculpture, photography, installation and video.
The program accompanying the exhibition will delve deeper into the field of tension surrounding Romanticism with lectures and discussions designed to open up new perspectives on the subject. The mechanisms and consequences of the popularization of Romanticism and its various effects in art, literature and society will also be examined. This will be done through sociological observations on modern intimate relationships, mental-historical analyses on the topicality of Romanticism, art-historical studies on the depiction of female figures in Friedrich's works and cultural-scientific discussions on the visions and utopias of early Romanticism. A music and painting performance in the monastery ruins in Eldena as well as creative workshops for young people and cooperation with the Ahrenshoop Literature Days make the Romanticism project at the interface of art, literature and science, curated by Celina Spieth, a comprehensive experience.
