Welcome to the virtual studio of Käthe Kollwitz
What events, circumstances and experiences are the driving force behind Käthe Kollwitz's work? What historical background, what personal motivations? And how does she decide which technique to use? Answers to these questions can be found in RAUM FÜR NEUES: a visit to the artist's virtual studio.
Together with developer Christine Bolz from the Cologne-based Redaktionsbüro Dank and Karsten Huth, 3D Kontor, we have created an immersive multimedia application that allows you to travel through time into the artist's working world. The virtual studio is an interactive video and audio installation. A beamer projection opens up Käthe Kollwitz's fictional workspace to the viewer, and a monitor on the side adds additional information to the experience. The narrative of the immersive feature follows the biography of the artist and her personal impressions as noted in her diary notes and letters.
The first set of themes is presented: Kollwitz's experiences during the First World War, which found artistic expression in the series of prints War, completed in 1923.
The artist's memories of her younger son Peter's enlistment as a war volunteer and his early death as a soldier lead into the theme room. Once there, it is up to the viewer to explore the studio for themselves. Using the touch screen, they can select pieces of equipment that tell different stories and digressions - for example, about the development of individual works from the War Series, about the technique of woodcutting, or about the artist's hopes for the effect of her work: »These prints should be sent all over the world and give everybody the essence of what it was like – this is what we all went through during these unspeakably hard times.«
The virtual studio is currently only available in German.
In the future, the application will also be made accessible in English as an experiential space within the collection presentation, bringing you closer to the artist's world of work and thought and helping you to understand the historical context. We invite you to try out the feature in the RAUM FÜR NEUES - and look forward to your feedback!