New temple of art in Dresden: Archive of the avant-gardes - Egidio Marzona opens after renovation

Saxony has another temple of art. The Archive of the Avant-Garde - Egidio Marzona (ADA) opens this Sunday as a new exhibition, research and debate venue of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) after six years of renovating a historic building. "This is a great moment here," said SKD Director General Marion Ackermann on Thursday. The ADA is not just an archive, not just a museum, "but a new kind of institution in between, an example of how museums can also be thought of".

Ackermann thanked the namesake Egidio Marzona for the donation of his art collection of almost 1.5 million objects in 2016. "It is the largest gain that the SKD has ever been able to absorb in one go." And the Free State has made "such a fantastic and courageous project" possible. Around 29 million euros were invested to turn the 18th century log cabin into a temple of art.

A modern multifunctional space with a seemingly floating concrete cube, which offers a research platform and space for exhibitions, has been created inside the listed building, which has been gutted down to the baroque outer shell. The exhibition "Archive of Dreams. A Surrealist Impulse" with around 300 works of art is dedicated to the Surrealists and their influence on other avant-garde movements such as Dada, Cobra, Fluxus and Pop Art.

The German-Italian art collector Marzona had transferred the collection, which had grown since the 1960s, and later a further 200,000 objects. According to Ackermann, it does not close the gaps in the SKD's holdings that arose as a result of National Socialism, the world wars and the GDR era. This adds something "that can be actively worked with".

Ackermann says the ADA is international, interdisciplinary and not just open to experts. "Anyone can come, by appointment." It is "a learning institution" that continues to develop, also in the spirit of the founders. Works have already been acquired, particularly from Eastern Modernism. "And it is a battery for all collections, it should inspire and fuel everyone," said Ackermann. With currently 729,274 objects, half of the collection has already been digitized.

Marzona's Archive of the Avant-Garde, which is now preserved and accessible in Dresden, is one of the most important collections of works, objects and documents of the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century. It includes correspondence, manifestos, films, posters, catalogs, artists' books 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.