Kuratiert vom Victoria andAlbert Museum, London

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THE WORLD ’S F I RS T RE TROSPECT IVE OF THE POP AND S TY L E ICON DAV ID BOWIE COMES TO BER L IN

Tickets for the exhibition, which was curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, are now available at www.davidbowie-berlin.de.

Berlin, 27.02.2014 From 20 May until 10 August 2014, the international exhibition David Bowie will be shown at Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin. This brings the spectacular show of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), one of the most successful exhibitions in the long-standing history of the London museum, to the banks of the Spree River. The retrospective David Bowie creates a comprehensive audio-visual exhibition experience using multimedia technology at the most advanced technical level.

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London was given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the fi rst international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie - one of the most pionee-ring and infl uential performers of modern times. The exhibition David Bowie explores the creative processes of Bowie as a musical innovator and cultural icon, tracing his shifting style and sustained reinvention across fi ve decades.

Kuratiert vom Victoria andAlbert Museum, London

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W W W. D AV I D B O W I E - B E R L I N . D E

2 0 . M A I – 1 0 . A U G U S TM A RT I N - G R O P I U S - B A U

The V&A’s Theatre and Performance curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh selected more than 300 objects that were brought together for the very fi rst time. They include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, fi lm, music videos, set designs, Bowie’s own instruments and album artwork.

David Bowie in Berlin

Due to Bowie’s close ties with the city, the exhibition’s station in Berlin is one of the highlights of its internatio-nal tour. The Berlin years from 1976 to 1978 were among Bowie’s most productive ones. It was here that he made music history. The so-called “Berlin Trilogy” – which includes the albums Low (1977), Lodger (1979) and his magnum opus Heroes (1977) – was inspired by the capital and in part recorded at the Hansa Studios near Potsdamer Platz. Berlin provided Bowie and companions such as Iggy Pop the room to experiment with radical avant-garde personas. By fusing fashion, music and performance art, life and art merged into something entirely novel. The city’s rich cultural past and the buzzing subcultures of the 1970s provided further inspiration. He was fascinated by the omnipresent historical forms of expression in architecture and art and felt particularly drawn to the artists of the Brücke movement. The famous lyrics of Heroes demonstrate how thoroughly he contempla-ted Berlin. The song is about two lovers who kiss at a wall. Here, Bowie processes his own observations and impressions of the 1920s Expressionism. In Berlin, Bowie also shot Just a Gigolo, the last fi lm that featured Marlene Dietrich. An additional section was exclusively curated for the exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau and shows the profound connection between Bowie and Berlin.

The exhibition

The main focus is on the diversity of David Bowie’s work and the close interplay of various disciplines and mo-des of expression. His music and radical individualism were not only infl uenced by movements in art, fashion, design and contemporary culture, but Bowie left his own mark on them as well. The exhibition David Bowie retraces the career of this exceptional artist in great detail – from David Robert Jones’ early years as a young London artist until he became the global superstar Bowie. 60 stage costumes are presented, including the Ziggy Stardust jumpsuit designed by Freddie Burretti (1972), Kansai Yamamoto’s extravagant designs for the Aladdin Sane tour (1973) as well as the iconic Union Jack coat that Bowie designed together with Alexander McQueen for the album cover of Earthling (1997). Among the objects are also photographs by Brian Duffy, Terry O’Neill, Masayoshi Sukita, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts and John Rowlands; album covers by Guy Peel-laert and Edward Bell, clips from fi lms and live concerts, including The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) and Sa-turday Night Live (1979); music videos of such songs as Boys Keep Swinging (1979) and Let’s Dance (1983); the stage set for the Diamond Dogs tour (1974); unpublished storyboards, hand-written set lists and song lyrics, word collages as well as drawings, notes and diary entries from Bowie’s personal collection.

Additional information and tickets are now available at www.davidbowie-berlin.de.

Kuratiert vom Victoria andAlbert Museum, London

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2 0 . M A I – 1 0 . A U G U S TM A RT I N - G R O P I U S - B A U

The exhibition David Bowie was curated by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Curators: Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh, Department of Theater and Performance

Organiser of the exhibition David Bowie in Berlin is Avantgarde, an international communication agency speci-alized in brand experiences. Besides offi ces in Berlin, Munich, Dresden and Cologne, Avantgarde runs offi ces in London, Paris, Moscow and 9 other international locations. In the cultural sector Avantgarde can count dOCUMENTA (13), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Semperoper among its customers. Acting as a link between participating institutions and supporting companies Avantgarde realises the exhibition in Berlin and makes it accessible to a wide audience.

Special thanks goes to the offi cial partners of the exhibition David Bowie:Sparkassen-Kulturfonds des Deutschen Sparkassen- und Giroverbandes, Audi, Kuhn & Bülow and Sennheiser.

Exhibtion venue is the Martin-Gropius-Bau of the Berliner Festspiele.

About the V&A

The V&A is the world’s leading museum of art and design with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversi-ty. It was established to make works of art available to all and to inspire British designers and manufacturers. Today, the V&A’s collections, which span over 2000 years of human creativity in virtually every medium and from many parts of the world, continue to intrigue, inspire and inform. www.vam.ac.uk

Sound Experience by Sennheiser

The Sennheiser Group, with its headquarters in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, is one of the world‘s lea-ding manufacturers of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems. In 2012 the family compa-ny, which was founded in 1945, achieved a turnover of around 584 million euros. Sennheiser employs more than 2,300 people worldwide, and has manufacturing plants in Germany, Ireland and the USA. The company is represented worldwide by subsidiaries in France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, Germany, Denmark (Nordic), Russia, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Japan, China, Canada, Me-xico, the USA and now Australia and New Zealand. Also part of the Sennheiser Group are Georg Neumann GmbH, Berlin and the joint venture Sennheiser Communications A/S.

Kuratiert vom Victoria andAlbert Museum, London

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Audio guide

Visitors to David Bowie can immerse themselves in Bowie’s worlds of sound. The exhibition employs the latest audio technology which virtually merges image with sound. The audio guides from Sennheiser are included in the ticket price; they play the sound tracks that accompany the exhibits and integrate the audio material seam-lessly into the tour of the exhibition.

David Bowie Archive

Costumes, materials and objects courtesy of the David Bowie Archive, with thanks to Archivist Sandy Hirshkowitz.

The David Bowie book

Accompanying the exhibition, the catalogue David Bowie will be published by Knesebeck Verlag, Munich. Exclusively available at the shop of the exhibition.

The original edition with the title David Bowie is published by: V&A Publishing, 2013Victoria and Albert Museum© The Board of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, 2013

Press contact

ARTPRESS – Ute Weingartenpresse@davidbowie-berlin.de 030 484963 510High resolution press images can be downloaded for free at www.davidbowie-berlin.de

Visitor service

info@davidbowie-berlin.de 030 484931 51www.davidbowie-berlin.de

Kuratiert vom Victoria andAlbert Museum, London

Veranstalter

W W W. D AV I D B O W I E - B E R L I N . D E

2 0 . M A I – 1 0 . A U G U S TM A RT I N - G R O P I U S - B A U

Exhibition venue

Martin-Gropius-BauNiederkirchnerstraße 710963 Berlin www.gropiusbau.de

Opening hours

10.00 – 20.00 daily No closing dayCash desk closes at 19.15

Tickets

Adults: 14,00 €Reduced Rate: 10,00 €

Free admission for children and teenagers up to he age of 16

Online-Tickets

The online-ticket, available at www.davidbowie-berlin.de, grants you direct access to the Martin-Gropius-Bau: no need to queue at the cash desk. Each online ticket bought is valid for a 15-minutes time slot within which you will be admitted to the exhibition.

Ticket service

www.davidbowie-berlin.deticket@davidbowie-berlin.de