Bonn - city of galleries

Last week I attended the second EVS seminar in Bonn. I chose this place for my seminar, because I have heard of the great reputation of the art galleries and museums there, which I wanted to visit on this occation. And I was not disappointed at all!

During the EVS meeting we spent one day in Bonn with the group, where we visited the Haus der Geschichte together. There is permanent installation of the memorials of the German history from Second World War till present. Of course at the beginning we expected a very boring tour through the paintings and statues from history, but we were very surprised how beautiful the installation was. The single parts of the different times of history were visibly separated and installed as one place each, full of different kinds of memorials and with a totally different atmosphere. I really appreciated to sit in typical cinema from 50ies, in bar from 70ies etc. (Entrance: Free, permanent exhibition)

In our free time after that I decided to visit the near Kunst Museum in Bonn. I visited two installations - one about painters of expressionism and a second one called Echtzeit, which evidently focused on present authors and artists, that are connected with the topic of the life-style of our generation: rushing time, consumer products etc. However, the objects were very versatile. (Entrance: 3,5€ with Youth Card, August Macke und Rhenish Expressionists - permanent exhibition, Echtzeit - 9. 6. - 4. 9. 2016)

But in the end I spent just a short time in this Museum, because after that I figured out that in the second building of the complex, the Bundeskunsthalle, there is an exhibition of Pina Bausch, a great german dancer and choreographer of 20/21st century. The exhibition was full of posters, photos and videos during the life of Pina, but the best thing was, that at the day of my visit, there was a dance workshop with one of Bausch's students. It was absolutely great to try to work with her and to see even a bit how her choreography works. The program of the exhibition is full of different projects, among them there are for example life dance performances or records from her. (Entrance: 6,5€ - with Youth Card, workshop free, if you buy a ticket for the exhibition, 4. 3. - 24. 7. 2016)

I was very pleasantly surprised by the diversity and quality of Bonn's museums. Also they were all at one place, ca. 250m far away, so it was nice to get from one exhibition to another. After that I had just a really short time to see the rest of the city and enjoy Bonn as historical city itself. But however I came through city and I met lots of other smaller or bigger galleries. It is for me secret to me, why all of them are in this little city, but anyway the trip to Bonn made me very happy and it was nice to see so much about german art in present and history in one place and in such a short time.