Curated by Sabine Brantl and Ulrich Wilmes

These days, most young artists from Germany have shed the “German artist” label that for decades confined their art to an Adornian working through of the past. Perhaps no institution better embodies the con- straints of German memory culture than Munich’s Haus der Kunst, completed in 1937 as a leading example of National Socialist architecture and a showcase for yearly Great German Art Exhibitions. What can possibly, responsibly, relevantly be shown in its halls today? Reflecting Okwui Enwezor’s recent appointment as director, the upcoming exhibition “Histories in Conflict” promises fresh answers. An array of artworks and archival materials—installed according to a design by artist Christian Philipp-Müller—will make visible the museum’s ­­activity from its introduction at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair through to the first Documenta, in 1955, encouraging a plurality of international perspectives on the HdK’s history.

— Christine Mehring