Karlsruhe

In Learning German 2003, Europe On 05/09/2003 One comment

Right after my arrival in Karlsruhe I went to see the ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie and visit the Medienmuseum. It was impressive for me because I had the opportunity to see works of electronic art that I only knew from books. Works as the ones by Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mignonneau, Bruno Cohen, Jeffrey Shaw, Hermen Maat, really are nothing in a book when compared to the experience of touching and interacting.

I walked around the city downtown area. Crowded with shops, cafes, and lots of people walking around, it reminded me Brazil. Maybe due to the modern architecture, the noise and movement of people coming and going. One of the most important tourist places in the city is the Schloss Karlsruhe. The palace was constructed in the eighteenth century by Karl Wilhelm. Today it houses the museum Badisches Landesmuseum im Schloss. Here I could get a sense of how it was the life in the palace and appreciate the art. I climbed up the tower to have a view of the city. Near the palace it is the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlruhe, another art museum. It impressed me that in a small city as this one, the local art museum could have works by Gauguin, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir.

On my last day in town I visited the Städtische Galerie Karlsruhe, a modern art museum in the ZKM. After seeing painting, sculpture and photography, I spent the afternoon in the ZKM Mediathek watching contemporary video art. By the end of the three days in town I was overloaded with so much art. Karlsruhe, despite of being a small city, it has a lot to show.