“I, I can remember, Standing by the wall”
The David Bowie exhibition will now visit Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Germany, from 20 May until 10 August 2014, and you can read everything you need to know regarding the exhibition below.
With the latest addition of Berlin, the confirmed venues for the tour are:
Museum of Image and Sound, Sao Paulo, Brazil from 31 January to 20 April 2014
Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Germany, from 20 May until 10 August 2014
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, USA from September 2014 to January 2015
Philharmonie de Paris/Cité de la Musique, Paris, France from 2 March to 31 May 2015
Groninger Museum, Groningen, The Netherlands from 15 December 2015 to 15 March 2016
THE WORLD’S FIRST RETROSPECTIVE OF THE POP AND STYLE ICON DAVID BOWIE COMES TO BERLIN
Tickets for the exhibition, which was curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,
are now available at www.davidbowie-berlin.de
Berlin, 27.02.2014 – From 20 May until 10 August 2014, the international exhibition David Bowie will
be shown at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. This brings the spectacular show of the Victoria and Albert Museum
(V&A), one of the most successful exhibitions in the long-standing history of the London museum, to the banks
of the Spree River. The retrospective David Bowie creates a comprehensive audio-visual exhibition experience
using multimedia technology at the most advanced technical level.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London was given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to
curate the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie – one of the most pioneering
and influential performers of modern times. The exhibition David Bowie explores the creative processes
of Bowie as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style and sustained reinvention across
five decades.
The V&A’s Theatre and Performance curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh selected more than 300
objects that were brought together for the very fi rst time. They include handwritten lyrics, original costumes,
fashion, photography, fi lm, music videos, set designs, Bowie’s own instruments and album artwork.
David Bowie in Berlin
Due to Bowie’s close ties with the city, the exhibition’s station in Berlin is one of the highlights of its international
tour. The Berlin years from 1976 to 1978 were among Bowie’s most productive ones. It was here that he
made music history. The so-called “Berlin Trilogy” – which includes the albums Low (1977), Lodger (1979)
and his magnum opus Heroes (1977) – was inspired by the capital and in part recorded at the Hansa Studios
near Potsdamer Platz. Berlin provided Bowie and companions such as Iggy Pop the room to experiment
with radical avant-garde personas. By fusing fashion, music and performance art, life and art merged into
something entirely novel.
The city’s rich cultural past and the buzzing subcultures of the 1970s provided further inspiration. He was
fascinated by the omnipresent historical forms of expression in architecture and art and felt particularly drawn
to the artists of the Brücke movement. The famous lyrics of Heroes demonstrate how thoroughly he contemplated
Berlin. The song is about two lovers who kiss at a wall. Here, Bowie processes his own observations and
impressions of the 1920s Expressionism. In Berlin, Bowie also shot Just a Gigolo, the last film that featured
Marlene Dietrich. An additional section was exclusively curated for the exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau and
shows the profound connection between Bowie and Berlin.
The exhibition
The main focus is on the diversity of David Bowie’s work and the close interplay of various disciplines and modes
of expression. His music and radical individualism were not only influenced by movements in art, fashion,
design and contemporary culture, but Bowie left his own mark on them as well. The exhibition David Bowie
retraces the career of this exceptional artist in great detail – from David Robert Jones’ early years as a young
London artist until he became the global superstar Bowie. 60 stage costumes are presented, including the
Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit designed by Freddie Burretti (1972), Kansai Yamamoto’s extravagant designs for the
Aladdin Sane tour (1973) as well as the iconic Union Jack coat that Bowie designed together with Alexander
McQueen for the album cover of Earthling (1997). Among the objects are also photographs by Brian Duffy,
Terry O’Neill, Masayoshi Sukita, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts and John Rowlands; album covers by Guy Peellaert
and Edward Bell, clips from films and live concerts, including The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and Saturday
Night Live (1979); music videos of such songs as Boys Keep Swinging (1979) and Let’s Dance (1983);
the stage set for the Diamond Dogs tour (1974); unpublished storyboards, hand-written set lists and song lyrics,
word collages as well as drawings, notes and diary entries from Bowie’s personal collection.
Additional information and tickets are now available at www.davidbowie-berlin.de.
The exhibition David Bowie was curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Curators: Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh, Department of Theater and Performance
Organiser of the exhibition David Bowie in Berlin is Avantgarde, an international communication agency specialized
in brand experiences. Besides offices in Berlin, Munich, Dresden and Cologne, Avantgarde runs offices
in London, Paris, Moscow and 9 other international locations. In the cultural sector Avantgarde can count
dOCUMENTA (13), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Semperoper among its customers. Acting as a
link between participating institutions and supporting companies Avantgarde realises the exhibition in Berlin
and makes it accessible to a wide audience.
Special thanks goes to the official partners of the exhibition David Bowie:
Sparkassen-Kulturfonds des Deutschen Sparkassen- und Giroverbandes, Audi, Kuhn & Bülow and Sennheiser.
Exhibtion venue is the Martin-Gropius-Bau of the Berliner Festspiele.
About the V&A
The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity.
It was established to make works of art available to all and to inspire British designers and manufacturers.
Today, the V&A’s collections, which span over 2000 years of human creativity in virtually every medium and
from many parts of the world, continue to intrigue, inspire and inform. www.vam.ac.uk
Sound Experience by Sennheiser
The Sennheiser Group, with its headquarters in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, is one of the world‘s leading
manufacturers of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems. In 2012 the family company,
which was founded in 1945, achieved a turnover of around 584 million euros. Sennheiser employs more
than 2,300 people worldwide, and has manufacturing plants in Germany, Ireland and the USA. The company
is represented worldwide by subsidiaries in France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and
Liechtenstein, Germany, Denmark (Nordic), Russia, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Japan, China, Canada, Mexico,
the USA and now Australia and New Zealand. Also part of the Sennheiser Group are Georg Neumann
GmbH, Berlin and the joint venture Sennheiser Communications A/S.
Audio guide
Visitors to David Bowie can immerse themselves in Bowie’s worlds of sound. The exhibition employs the latest
audio technology which virtually merges image with sound. The audio guides from Sennheiser are included in
the ticket price; they play the sound tracks that accompany the exhibits and integrate the audio material seamlessly
into the tour of the exhibition.
David Bowie Archive
Costumes, materials and objects courtesy of the David Bowie Archive, with thanks to Archivist
Sandy Hirshkowitz.
The David Bowie book
Accompanying the exhibition, the catalogue David Bowie will be published by Knesebeck Verlag, Munich.
Exclusively available at the shop of the exhibition.
The original edition with the title David Bowie is published by:
V&A Publishing, 2013
Victoria and Albert Museum
© The Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2013
Visitor service
030 484931 51
Exhibition venue
Martin-Gropius-Bau
Niederkirchnerstraße 7
10963 Berlin
Opening hours
10.00 – 20.00 daily
No closing day
Cash desk closes at 19.15
Tickets
Adults: 14,00 €
Reduced Rate: 10,00 €
Free admission for children and teenagers up to the age of 16
Online-Tickets
The online-ticket, available at www.davidbowie-berlin.de, grants you direct access to the Martin-Gropius-Bau:
no need to queue at the cash desk. Each online ticket bought is valid for a 15-minutes time slot within which
you will be admitted to the exhibition.
Ticket service