Still baroque on the outside, completely modern on the inside: Dresden's 18th-century log cabin is ready for Egidio Marzona's Archive of the Avant-Garde. After about four years of construction, the building once erected as a guardhouse was handed over to the State Art Collections (SKD) on Thursday. A building in need of renovation has been transformed into "an architectural icon of international standing," said Finance Minister Hartmut Vorjohann (CDU) at the handover of the keys. The Free State invested around 29 million euros, and the planning costs were "essentially" met, despite increased construction prices and flood protection measures. The "Archive of the Avant-Garde - Egidio Marzona" (ADA) is scheduled to open on May 5, 2024.
According to Vorjohann, the Madrid-based architectural firm responsible for the conversion succeeded in making the "radical courage to design the 20th century tangible." The listed building was gutted down to the exterior walls, and the historic facade, roof and windows have been restored to near-original condition. Inside, a contemporary multifunctional space was created, with a seemingly floating concrete cube suspended from four wings with a research platform, as well as space for exhibitions.
Name-giver and benefactor Marzona had donated to the SKD in 2016 about 1.5 million objects of his art collection, which has grown since the 1960s, and transferred another 200,000 in 2018. The collection includes correspondence, manifestos, films, posters, artists' books, catalogs, as well as artworks and design objects by Pablo Picasso, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Max Beckmann, Paul Klee, Niki de Saint Phalle, Andy Warhol, and Joseph Beuys. Thus, one of the most important collections of artworks, objects and documents of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century is now moving into the former guard building, which has already been used for cultural purposes in the recent past - and is intended to make it a lively place for art lovers, research and discourse.
Copyright 2023, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved
