Objects from the collections of the Institute of Applied Physics on view at the HfBK Dresden: Exhibition "DEPTH AND SURFACE. Scientific Tableaux in Dialogue with Olaf Holzapfel " (September 27th to December 1st, 2024)

What treasures are housed in university collections? What do they tell us about the history, present and future of knowledge production in art, technology and research? In the exhibition DEPTH AND SURFACE, over 100 scientific "object tableaux" are shown for the first time in combination with artistic tableaux by the internationally renowned Dresden artist Olaf Holzapfel. Objects from the Hermann Krone Collection and the Scientific Photography Collection are part of the show as well.

"Depth and Surface.

Scientific Tableaux in Dialogue with Olaf Holzapfel"

A project by the Office for Fine Arts (HFBK Dresden) of the TUD Dresden University of Technology in cooperation with the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HFBK Dresden)

September 27 to December 1, 2024
Octagon. Art Gallery of the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK Dresden)
Georg-Treu-Platz 1, 01067 Dresden
Opening hours: Tue - Sun, 11 am - 6 pm

Guided tour for members of the Institute of Applied Physics
Friday, November 29th, 2024, 3 pm
Meeting point: Oktogon, entrance hall

The exhibition is based on the more than 40 university teaching and research collections of the TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD) and the Dresden University of Fine Arts (HfBK Dresden). These collections contain models, teaching boards, moulages, preparations and objects of other genres that have been produced or collected over the last 200 years with special didactic or scientific intentions for teaching and research. The show focuses on the hitherto little-examined genre of the tableau: display boards or boxes with arrangements of exhibits.

© TU Dresden, Hermann Krone Collection

The collections of the Institute of Applied Physics also include such special objects, some of which are being shown to the public for the first time ever in this exhibition. In addition to didactic charts from Hermann Krone's “Historical Didactic Museum ofPhotography”, the show features tableaux from the Scientific Photographic Collection, which provide fascinating insights into the history, research and teaching of the Institute.

In combination with these historical "object tableaus", works created and arranged especially for the project by Olaf Holzapfel (*1967 in Dresden, lives in Berlin) can be seen: Foldings, paintings, works with natural materials such as the hay paintings and models of the past 20 years as well as a new half-timbered work. Like no other artist of his generation, Holzapfel stands for the urgent examination of cultural practices and social spaces and their changing significance between yesterday, now and tomorrow.

The complementary staging of the exhibition with the tableaus as a form of order and display and Holzapfel's artistic settings opens up new perspectives on contemporary living spaces and their history, on that "in-between" (Olaf Holzapfel) in the relationship between man, nature, thing and time.

The exhibition is generously supported by
Ostdeutsche Sparkassenstiftung and Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden
Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz, Landeshauptstadt Dresden
Stiftung Kunst und Musik für Dresden

More information about the exhibition available here