A Collection, a Canon, and a Society in Transformation.

How can Kunsthalle Mannheim’s outward architectural makeover be projected onto the museum’s inner life, its programming? And what is the role of a museum in civil society today? These were the questions that drove the exhibition project Upheaval, in which the Kunsthalle’s incoming director, Johan Holten, turns the spotlight on its institutional core: its collection, the reflection on the canon, and the active involvement of its visitors. Staging a dialogue between positions of 1920s and 1930s modernism and contemporary works, some of them created specifically for the exhibition, Upheaval inquires into how to reorient the museum’s activities. Sculptures and installations by the artists Kaari Upson, Hu Xiaoyuan, and Nevin Aladag encounter paintings by Hanna Nagel, Jeanne Mammen, Anita Ree, and others, while a third section of the show features video pieces by Clement Cogitore and Masar Sohail.

The catalog texts were written by Doerte Dennemann, Inge Herold, Johan Holten, Jennifer Meiser, Eva-Maria Schutz.