Munich is famous for its rich history, culture and art scene, which is appreciated by locals and tourists alike. From autumn 2023, visitors to the city can enjoy a variety of new, unique cultural highlights on a wide range of themes and eras. This includes everything from the recently opened and revamped Bier- und Oktoberfest Museum (Beer and Oktoberfest Museum), to theatre photography, gallery weekends with contemporary art or Venetian painting in the Alte Pinakothek (art gallery) – here, interested visitors are offered a wide variety of perspectives on the world and human experience.
The exhibition in the Alte Pinakothek (art gallery) from 27 October 2023 to 4 February 2024 is dedicated to the ground-breaking innovations of Venetian painting during the Renaissance and brings together 15 masterpieces from the Munich collection with around 70 internationally loaned works. The focus is on portraits and landscapes. With an unprecedented intensity, the leading masters of the 1500s, such as Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Palma Vecchio, Lorenzo Lotto, Titian and Tintoretto, dealt with the essence of man and nature – and also with the relationship between the two.
He amazed his contemporaries, transcended the boundaries of visual representation and is now regarded as a revolutionary innovator and pioneer of modernism and abstraction: Joseph Mallord William Turner. From 28 October 2023 to 10 March 2024, around 40 paintings, as well as 40 watercolours and sketches from all of the artist’s creative phases will be on display at Lenbachhaus (art gallery) in cooperation with Tate, London, a network of four art galleries in the United Kingdom.
Early on, his works detached themselves so clearly from living nature and in their reduction to colour, light and atmosphere, they called into question the depictive function of the image, which is why later generations now celebrate his astonishing modernity.
Meredith Monk is an artist of the senses, who experiments freely with a wide variety of art forms and whose work constantly explores new boundaries of music, song, theatre, dance, video, performance and installation. Thus, from 10 November to the beginning of March 2024, visitors to the Haus der Kunst (art gallery) not only get to see, but can also hear the hitherto most comprehensive presentation of the influential New York artist.
While Monk is widely known in the world of music and theatre, the exhibition at Haus der Kunst (art gallery) will be the first in Europe dedicated to the artist's immersive work. The exhibition aims to let the viewer submerge themselves in her art and interact with the scenic representations.
Since the late 1970s, Abisag Tüllmann and Ruth Walz have photographed – each in their own way and to some extent the same – ground-breaking productions that shape our idea of theatre to this day.
From autumn 2023, one focus of the exhibition at the Deutsches Theatermuseum (theatre museum) will be on the two befriended photographers' intensive engagement with the works of director and set designer Karl-Ernst Herrmann (1936–2018), as well as costume designer Moidele Bickel (1937–2016). Thus, "double exposure" becomes "multiple exposure" of photography, stage and costume design, brimming with unexpected views and insights into theatre and opera history.
After renovation with the aim of reducing the number of showcases and creating more experiences for all the senses, the Bier- und Oktoberfest Museum (Beer and Oktoberfest Museum) is finally open again. In the city's oldest town house (dating back to 1340), visitors can now experience an important part of the Munich way of life in a more modern and visitor-friendly way.
Video installations tell everything about beer or let visitors immerse in the festival tent with its Wiesn (Oktoberfest) band and party-goers swaying to the music. The tour ends with a freshly tapped Mass (1 litre beer in a mug) in the museum restaurant. Those who want to delve deeper, can book a themed city tour, such as the beer and brewery tour, the Hofbräuhaus (beer hall) tour or the Oktoberfest tour during the Wiesn (Oktoberfest).
Now in its sixth year, the Various Others art festival once again convinces with its innovative and exciting concept, offering a platform for contemporary art in autumn 2023. Not only the entire Munich cultural landscape with museums such as the Pinakothek der Moderne (art gallery), the Museum Brandhorst (art gallery), the Haus der Kunst (art gallery), the Lenbachhaus (art gallery), the Goetz Collection and the Kunstraum Lothringer 13 shows what it has to offer.
Various Others also invites internationally renowned galleries to enrich the Munich portfolio with a range of stars from the global art scene. From the very beginning, the idea was to bring together local talent and international galleries for exhibition projects in Munich. The four-week event will kick off on the opening weekend from 7 to 10 September 2023.
Every year since 1989, the city's galleries have opened their doors on three days in September to showcase contemporary and modern art to a wide audience. Coinciding with the opening weekend of the Various Others Festival, it heralds the start of the art season after the summer break.
In the meantime, Open Art has become a well-established name in the gallery scene and the art world, both nationally and internationally: In addition to the ongoing exhibitions, a variety of events such as vernissages, guided tours, artist talks, readings and concerts are planned this year from 8 to 10 September in the over 40 participating galleries and more than 20 institutions during the extended opening hours.
Whether "Dreiklang", "Zauberwürfel" or "Festival von früh bis spät" – the new Bergson Kunstkraftwerk in the west of Munich definitely promises to be extraordinary. Germany's most spacious gallery for contemporary art is currently emerging in a listed former heating plant, offering a wide range of art and culture, as well as a diverse culinary programme.
After the soft opening in January next year, the entire facility, including a variety of event spaces, a live club and a state-of-the-art concert hall will come into operation in June.
In early 2024, the mountains in Munich will symbolically move into their new home at the completely renovated Alpine Museum on the Praterinsel (Isar river island). Here, visitors can explore the world of the Alps and learn about the history, culture and current topics of alpinism.
Exhibits include artistic works and objects on all facets of mountaineering, such as the history of alpine development, various mountain sports, nature conservation, geology andzoology. Changing special exhibitions deal with relevant topics of alpinism such as climate change. The idyllic museum garden directly on the Isar (river) is the ideal place for a subsequent walk in nature.
The long wait will soon be over: in the first quarter of 2024, the permanent exhibition of the State Archaeological Collection, which has been temporarily closed since August 2016 for extensive general renovation, will once again be open to visitors in a new setting. It was founded back in 1885 and today comprises five departments: Prehistory, Roman Period, Middle Ages and Modern Times, the Mediterranean Collection and Numismatics.
From 12 to 14 September 2023, the live painting event Art Project Hortusurbis with well-known Munich artist Martin Blumöhr will take place in front of the new building as part of the Flower Power Festival. An oversized art project is to be created, in which also future exhibition objects will take viewers on a journey back into the past of human existence – urban wild growth of a special kind.
