Special exhibitions 2023
Cloudy And Clear
Especially Everyday!
Transferring the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt’s collection to the Hessenpark Open Air Museum
The collections of the Hessenpark Open Air Museum have been reinforced by a new acquisition. Consisting of around 10,500 objects, the Everyday Culture Collection of the Hessian State Museum Darmstadt has moved into the Hessenpark’s newly built central depot.
The diversity of the collection’s inventory will be illustrated by different subject areas such as housing, advertising, hygiene and war. Twelve chapters ranging from “Particularly Clean?” to “Particularly Unique!” will provide visitors access to selected individual pieces such as artistically painted Easter eggs, a toilet bowl or a cooking box. The presentation deliberately breaks with the impression of being surrounded merely by products of daily use. Presented like works of art, the exhibits appear in a completely different light. This creates an atmosphere of specialness and enables visitors to gain a new perspective on the everyday.
Against this background, the overriding goal of the exhibition is to express the cultural value of those objects and at the same time illustrate the significance of everyday life. Moreover, children can also become active and help decide in which chapter they would like to classify familiar everyday objects.
At the same time, the exhibition exemplifies the close cooperation between the two museums, driven by the intention to make Hessen’s everyday cultural heritage accessible to research and the public at the Hessenpark Open Air Museum.
Nikon F – The SLR Icon Of The 1960s
The Nikon F is the iconic camera of 1960s reportage photography. To this day, it has played a decisive role in shaping our image of this era. Photographs that captured moments of world events in magazines such as Stern were taken with the Nikon F. The robust camera with a variety of expansion options and a comprehensive range of lenses was popular with many photographers in different fields.
The Hessenpark Open Air Museum has put essential parts of a large Nikon F-collection on show: In addition to cameras, lenses and accessories, this exhibition also features photographs taken with the Nikon F. The renowned Stern photographer Volker Hinz worked with the Nikon F in the 1960s and 1970s and was best known for his photographs of political events