Commentary on the Kunsthaus Zürich – Enough now, Mr. Becker! Hand the scepter over to Ann Demeester!
In the midst of the crisis surrounding the takeover of the Bührle collection, the helmsman is missing. Christoph B.ecker, der Director of the Kunsthaus Zürich, ducks away where he can. Loses his temper at the slightest criticism. Is not rede and answer. Lately it has even become the president of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder by means of a lawyer rebuked. And he has no idea how the Bührle Collection could be turned into a place of Swiss remembrance culture.
D.ie «NZZ on Sunday» reportsthat sicH Becker with wrong feathers totaladorns havee. When he told the journalists at a roughly scheduled media conference on December 15 that he had asked Ronald S. Lauder for advice before setting up the documentation room for the Bührle exhibition, it was not true.
Becker’s half-truths
«I was not consulted on the information space, as the Kunsthaus Zürich has since confirmed, and I have also not expressed an opinion on the information space»said Lauder of his Zurich lawyer.Also register Christoph Becker? It was probably one of the classic ones «Half-truths», which the Basel literary scholar Nicola Gess analyzed in her book with the same title.
In his conversation with Ronald S. Lauder in 2016, as this was giving a lecture at the Kunsthaus Zürich, Becker explained to him, according to “NZZ am Sonntag”, that the Bührle Collection should be accompanied by a documentation roomürde. Calling that a consultation is very bold. The press department is still stubborn: «Christoph Becker rejects the allegation that he hawaye not properly informed the public, expressly back. “
Demeester should take over
The Lauder half-truth overflows the barrel of communicative failures by the Kunsthaus Zürich. Instead of making the takeover of the Bührle Foundation a great success for the Kunsthaus, it became a major PR disaster under Becker’s direction. Instead of getting help from an agency specializing in crisis communication, as any other company would have done in such a case, the Kunsthaus switched to stubborn and turned the press conference on December 15th into a single orgy of justifications.
Let it be enough, Mr. Becker! YOU hand over the scepter as soon as possible to the designated successor Ann Demeester! She comes to Zurich regularly from February. It takes a break now! Incidentally, that is probably not necessary in either exorbitantly long, one year training period for your successor, you have stipulated yourself. After all, Ann Demeester is the successful director of the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem.
Place of remembrance
The Kunsthaus now needs a fresh, undisguised look at its collections, which man has to re-examine, re-contextualize and partially restitute. And it should definitely offer a hand to take on historical responsibility in the broadest sense. why actually does man / Aus the Chipperfield-Bau not a Swiss one Place of remembrancereminiscent of Switzerland’s complicated entanglements with Nazi Germany?
Christoph Heim is an editor in the Life Department and prefers to write about art and culture. He has been working in journalism for thirty years and in war for ten years, head of the culture department at the Basler Zeitung.
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– It’s enough now, Mr. Becker! Hand the scepter over to Ann Demeester!
Museum director Christoph Becker fails because of the integration of the Bührle collection in the Kunsthaus Zürich. Now it is even being corrected by the President of the World Jewish Congress.