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New year's reception⎟RoadMap Museion?

Friday January 23rd, 2026, 7:00 pm ‒ 9:00 pm
Ludwigstr. 7
Free entry
Registration required at: behncke@behncke-gallery.com

BY PERSONAL INVITATION ONLY

We are celebrating the 10th anniversary of MUNICH SPEECH® with my first guest in 2014, Bart van der Heide, then director of the Kunstverein München and now director of the Museion in Bolzano. Twelve successful years with guests such as Andrea Lissoni (artistic director of Haus der Kunst), Serge Dorny (director of the Bavarian State Opera), and Prof. Monika Schnitzer (chair of the German Council of Economic Experts) and the founding of the Behncke Gallery are now behind me. Bart van der Heide took over as director in June 2020 and will talk about his vision for the Museion in Bolzano.

Bart van der Heide is an internationally renowned art historian and exhibition curator. Before taking up his post in Bolzano, he was chief curator of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam from 2015 to 2019, where he was responsible for the museum's wide range of exhibitions, collection presentations, and accompanying events. From 2010 to 2015, Bart van der Heide led the Kunstverein München, which grew considerably under his direction.

Van der Heide has set himself ambitious goals with his new “RoadMap 2023” and remains true to his own credo that a museum should be “more than the sum of its exhibitions.” The list of desired collaborations is long, and the museum is also sticking to the methodology of an autonomously operating and event-creating Museion Art Club. Bart says: "My hope lies in the museum, in a general sense: I have hope for the role of the museum in society, for the humanities. We should not evaluate everything empirically, measurably, and technically. We are human beings and should concern ourselves with what makes us human. Not with what competes with us in technology, such as artificial intelligence. We are human beings, we have moments when we are productive, but also moments when we are not, when we are vulnerable. These are important values with which we should identify more strongly. We are not machines. That is why I have great hope in the system of public museums."

We are facing an enormous shift in values, and I see the artists in the current exhibition as seismographs of our time. "Mysterious Travels” deals with questions of identity (which values should we identify with?) or the spiritual journey between cultures, featuring Charmaine Poh (Singapore/Berlin), Deutsche Bank “Artist of the Year” 2025 and Villa Romana Prize 2026 (see Silke Hohmann https://www.monopol-magazin.de...).

Mysterious Travels 15. November 2025 - 31. Januar 2026 Jaemin Lee Youngjun Lee Charmaine Poh Kun Su Wang Zhibo

In the context of the exhibition, I will talk to Bart about the thematic complexes and curatorial exhibition concepts that make his museum attractive and which artistic positions are leading figures for him.

The Munich Speech® is an exclusive, international, non-profit series of events, to discuss cutting-edge art- and culture-topics. The name Munich Speech® derives from the celebrated series „Speeking about your own country: Germany“ at the Kammerspiele Munich in 1985 with Joseph Beuys.

Produced and presented since 2014 by Dietlinde Behncke (cultural manager and journalist, formerly at ZDF headquarter Berlin), the focus lies on outstanding positions/ personalities, who change, take action for or develop visions for Munich or change an institution in the world from Munich and who receive direct and immediate attention through the Munich Speech®. Due to the corona pandemic, there were also Munich Speech® digital live streams in 2020-2022.

The events took place three to four times a year until 2022 in André and Dietlinde Behncke's private apartment. The events are currently taking place at behncke gallery, since the gallery was founded on January 31, 2023.
Previous guests in 2017 included Dr. Roger Diederen (Director Kunsthalle Munich) with the FAUST-FESTIVAL MUNICH, 2018 Dr. Angelika Nollert (Director Die Neue Sammlung - The Design Museum in the Pinakothek der Moderne), 2019 2022 Serge Dorny (Bavarian State Opera Director), 2022 Dr. Eva Kraus (Director Bundeskunsthalle Bonn) "No future without transformation?" or Andrea Lissoni (in 2021 and 2022) - Artistic Director Haus der Kunst and Sarah Haugeneder (Boardmember Various Others), Prof. Bernhard Maaz (Director General of the Bavarian State Painting Collections) on the subject of "Art deals with the essence of life" or 2024 Dr. Cathrin Klingsöhr-Leroy (Director Franz Marc Museum, Kochel).

Klenze Palais at Odeonsplatz
Ludwigstraße 7
80539 Munich
gallery@behncke-gallery.com
Mobile: +49 (0) 173 612 86 60
Gallery: +49 (0) 89 680 969 92
Opening Hours
Tuesday ‒ Friday: 11 AM ‒ 6 PM
(1 PM ‒ 2 PM closed)
Saturday: 12 PM ‒ 4 PM