The other day I went to the new exhibition in Munich called “Magic City – The Art of the Street” in Munich. I love street art and was very much excited. Unfortunately, with high expectations one often gets easily disappointed.
The exhibition
The thought the curator had before setting this exhibition up was to design it like a city, yet, rather than enhancing the experience it distorted it for me and my friend. It was disorienting and we did never know whether we maybe missed something going through the “streets” and around corners.
With the entrance to the exhibition one got so-called “city guides” which were some kind of smart phone with a pair of head phones. Who now was looking forward to the audio explanation on the art and artists got disappointed. As guest you can click yourself through different numbers and then read the biography of the artist, their art, craft and sometimes even see a wee video (on that tiny display). Yet, since you always have to look on the little screen to read everything or watch those videos this distracts from the exhibition itself.
Furthermore, these city guides had technical flaws as well. So I got one that was blinking all the time telling me it was soon running out of battery and my headphones were only working occasionally, and my friend was constantly popped out of the system and had to log herself back in.
When I had checked out the website in advance of the visit it seemed to be more interactive than it was actually was in the end. One can take pictures with some pictures trying to be immersed in a 3 D effect. And this actually worked some of the times.
They do also have special events, like an art workshop every saturday afternoon, which you can find here. And if you would like to know how some of the pieces were created you can find some interviews with artists here.
The art
The exhibition itself was actually really nice with many great pieces of art shown. It also illustrated to a certain extend the development of the “street art scene” over time. I especially enjoyed the wee timeline on how street art developed in Munich since there were even for me some new things to learn I did not know about.
Besides the history of street art, the exhibition also shows how it is often used for political critics and even activism. It points out problems in society, but sometimes also informs on possibilities.
Overall I absolutely recommend visiting this exhibition as long as you keep above critics in mind. The Magic City exhibition will be open for guests in Munich until the end of September and will then open in Stockholm on the first of November 2017.
If you have visited the exhibition yourself already I would love to hear about your experiences!
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