When students are allowed to curate in the museum

How do you actually go about curating an exhibition? Nine art students from RPTU in Landau found out exactly that and are now able to present their visions in their own museum room at the Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern (mpk). They worked together with the museum in Kaiserslautern for several months and were able to present their exhibition to the public in person at an opening ceremony in June.

‘When Professor Marc Fritzsche announced the topic of our seminar, at first no one really had any idea what it was about,’ recalls Jana Maier with a laugh. “Public participation in the museum” didn't reveal much about the crazy idea that would soon become more than just a theory for them. During the meeting, the students learned that they would have the chance to curate their own room at the mpk. Specifically, they would be able to select artworks from the mpk according to their own taste and bring them together in a self-developed constellation. The chance to do so was based on several years of collaboration between Marc Fritzsche and the museum's director Steffen Egle, and Egle's confidence that the students would do a good job under the guidance of the RPTU instructor. After the initial excitement, the atmosphere quickly turned to euphoria and anticipation. ‘We all realised how rare an opportunity it is to be creatively involved in an exhibition like this. So, the excitement was correspondingly high and everyone had countless ideas for the exhibition,’ says Alexander Koch enthusiastically. Initially, the students' attention was not focused on the museum space itself, but rather on the realisation of their seminar topic. ‘We first thought about how we could create an atmosphere that would offer the audience more context for the works. At the same time, we also dealt with the practical details, such as providing enough comfortable seating to invite people to linger in the room and take in the art,’ says Jana Maier.

Finally, the time had come – the students were given access to the mpk's online depot and were able to look for suitable works of art for ‘their’ room. The only requirement set by the museum was that the art should be from the period after 1945. So the young artists did some research in the online depot and started by compiling a long list of works that spoke to them personally. ‘Many of the selected works are actually never seen in a common context and are usually not exhibited together,’ explains student Jana Maier. But the student curators saw similarities and completely new possibilities for juxtaposing the works of art and grouped them consistently under the aspects they had redefined. The nine students called their new perspective on the works ‘gegen/über’ – a new way of looking at art and thus creating a new, unconventional context for it. ‘Our biggest challenge was the room itself. The long list of our selected exhibits raised the question of whether we could even fit them all into the room,’ says Alexander Koch. At times, neither the dimensions of the room nor those of the works were known. This made it difficult for the students to finalise the spatial arrangement of the works. It was not clear whether the room would be too cramped or possibly too full. ‘The museum staff and even the tradespeople didn't always share our view of the exhibits and we had to defend it, but it was definitely worth following our gut feeling,’ affirms Jana Maier.

The complete creative freedom in the design also proved to be a challenge. ‘Professor Fritzsche encouraged us throughout the entire process, which was a great help,’ says Jana Maier. They gave the exhibition space a more light and airy feel by using fresh, bright colours, which had previously been used sparingly. The colour concept, the selected works and their arrangement resulted in the final spatial concept: a colourful, cheerful new exhibition space.

The preparations for the student exhibition took a long time: numerous seminar sessions, video conferences and on-site visits kept the young curators busy for nine months. They were understandably proud and relieved when the exhibition opened at the mpk this June. ‘The guests, the mpk curators and the craftsmen were thrilled with our room, which impressed with its wonderful atmosphere in which the works of art could be perceived in their very own context,’ says Jana Maier, pleased.

What have the nine gained from this extraordinary experience? ‘It was a unique, indescribable experience, which involved a lot of work but also a lot of joy thanks to the great support of Marc Fritzsche and the good group cohesion,’ says Alexander Koch. Professor Marc Fritzsche also looks back on an enriching time: ‘All in all, this was one of the most inspiring seminars for me in my almost 18 years of university teaching. The students have achieved something outstanding in an intensive process that has been very demanding for everyone involved.‘ The result of the students’ hard work can be marvelled at in the mpk until 19 January 2025. And who knows, perhaps other museums will open their doors to universities and their young artists after this success...

Author: Maja Milosevic