Special exhibition “Moving in Stereo”. Top-class works of art from the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection provide new inspiration

• Special exhibition at the Mercedes-Benz Museum from 27 October 2022 to 11 June 2023
• 150 highlights from the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection by 90 artists from 20 countries
• Works by artists from Stuttgart and the region
• Integrated into the permanent exhibition and in Collection Room 5
• Cooperation with the Stuttgart Art Museum
• Overview of the artists: www.mercedes-benz.art

What are two bicycles mounted vertically next to each other, their contours traced by glowing blue neon tubes, doing next to the world's first automobiles by Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler? The sculpture "Riding Bikes" by US artist Robert Rauschenberg from 1998 is part of "Moving in Stereo", the new special exhibition at the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

The highlights of the internationally renowned Mercedes-Benz Art Collection will be presented from 27 October 2022 to 11 June 2023: 150 works by 90 national and international artists from 20 countries, created in the period from 1910 to the present day. The majority of the artworks are integrated into the permanent exhibition at the Mercedes-Benz Museum. Collection Room 5, traditionally the venue for special exhibitions, is reserved exclusively for art and, in particular, several large exhibits.

The spectrum of the exhibition ranges from south-west German classics Adolf Hölzel, Willi Baumeister and Oskar Schlemmer to young international contemporary artists
such as Haris Epaminonda, Alia Farid, Cao Fei and Adejoke Tugbiyele. Works by contemporary artists who live in Stuttgart or whose biography is linked to the region will also be presented: Dieter Blum, Florina Leinß, Tobias Rehberger, Anna Tretter and many others. Selected artworks from a broad spectrum of media are on display: from painting, drawing, sculpture and light objects to photography, installation and video.

Other parts of the exhibition allow works with musical aspects as well as commissioned works related to the automobile to enter into an intensive dialogue. At the centre of this exhibition's focus is the large mobile and musical sculpture "Méta-Maxi" by Swiss artist Jean Tinguely (1925 to 1991) from 1986, which can be seen in Stuttgart for the first time.

Renata Jungo Brüngger:
"'Moving in Stereoʼ shows highlights of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection from more than 100 years of art history in the special setting of the Mercedes-Benz Museum. Fascinating works of art, from pioneers of modernism to contemporary international art, accompany the journey through time since the invention of the automobile: from Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler to the most innovative technologies of today. The works are part of our top-class art collection, which also stands for our company's broad social commitment to culture and education. I hope visitors get new and surprising insights when they see art and mobility meet," says Renata Jungo Brüngger, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Integrity & Legal Affairs.

Dr Renate Wiehager:
"Against a broad horizon of art history, architecture, design, music and mobility, as well as with references to current socio-political discussions, the exhibition 'Moving in Stereoʼ looks at the development, the present and the forward-looking concepts of the collection. 150 works by 90 artists from 20 countries were selected. The fact that we are able to present works by 40 women from four generations is the result of a reorientation of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection that began around the year 2000, which increasingly placed the focus on the contributions of women to the art of the 20th and 21st centuries," says Dr Renate Wiehager, Head of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection.

Bettina Haussmann:
"Our main protagonists in the Mercedes-Benz Museum are 160 vehicles from the entire brand history of our company. Works of art from the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection have always been part of the Museum concept as equally important sources of inspiration for society. After the first major special exhibition 'Art & Stars & Cars' in 2011, I am now very much looking forward to the enrichment resulting from another 150 works of art under the title 'Moving in Stereo'. The interplay between art and classic cars in the context of our unique architecture opens up entirely new perspectives and creates food for thought. I hope the exhibition inspires its audience within this context," says Bettina Haussmann, Director of the Mercedes-Benz Museum.

Examples from the special exhibition "Moving in Stereo"

Atrium: An installation by Stuttgart artist Florina Leinß, created as a commissioned work, signals the entry of art into the Museum: the exteriors of the three lifts, their counterweights and safety rails are covered with coloured and translucent foils in reduced shapes. Moving art unfolds in space via the colour and the lift movements.

Legend Room 1: Pioneers - The Invention of the Automobile, 1886 to 1900. The room is dedicated to the invention of the motor car and early vehicles. There, the sculpture "Riding Bikes" by Robert Rauschenberg from 1998 is shown with two bicycles mounted side by side, their contours outlined in colour by neon tubes. The bicycles are mounted wheel to wheel. Combined as they are, the work dissolves meaning and function as a locomotion machine - a tongue-in-cheek, thought-provoking impulse, also in the direction of the client, the then Daimler AG, whose products guarantee the highest standard of mobility.

Starting with Rauschenberg's "Riding Bikes", the next exhibition area brings together works by around 30 artists from the period 1923 to 2013 - a "mini-retrospective" of important styles and media in the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection. Among them the first acquisition with which the art collection was founded in 1977: the painting "Ruhe und Bewegung II (auf Blau)" by Willi Baumeister from 1948.

Collection Room 5 of the Mercedes-Benz Museum brings together works that relate in different ways to aspects of music, movement, dance, rhythm and automobility. The guests are greeted impressively by Jean Tinguely's sculpture "Méta-Maxi" from 1986. The monumental mobile object, a late major work by the artist, was for many years one of the attractions of the sculpture ensemble of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. The mechanical wheelwork, made of objects found in industrial production, unfolds a theatrical effect and brings out Tinguely's penchant for the performative. In their stoic beating together, the metal elements act like a peasant orchestra, which seems to be presided over by a piano as its conductor at the head end.

The video neon installation "Nam Sat" by Nam June Paik in Legend Room 7: Silver Arrows- Races and Records leads guests out of the exhibition. The South Korean designed the sculpture in 1997/98 for the entrance area of the former Daimler Financial Services building (now Mercedes-Benz Mobility) at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Sparse geometric neon structures form abstract shapes and concrete symbols like hearts. They surround a series of monitors with Paik's video compositions and rhythmic sequences of abstract-ornamental images. Changing in coloured light, the neon lines generate associations with amusement arcades and other diversionary attractions.

An overview of the artists shown in the special exhibition can be found on the website of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection at www.mercedes-benz.art.

Guided tours and joint ticket offer with the Stuttgart Art Museum

Open guided tours in German in the special exhibition will be offered by the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection every Wednesday at 4 p.m. and Sundays on request. People can register for this at [email protected]. In addition, there is a joint ticket offer together with the Stuttgart Art Museum: visitors to one museum receive a discount on admission when visiting the other museum.

The Mercedes-Benz Art Collection

The Mercedes-Benz Art Collection was founded in 1977 and is today one of the most important European corporately held collections with museum-level quality and international renown. It comprises some 3,000 works of art by about 800 artists and focuses on abstract-constructive visual concepts and critically engaged art as well as representative works and commissioned works on topics such as automobility, design and construction. The art collection embodies Mercedes-Benz's broadly based social commitment to culture and education. With this, the company wants to create a recognisable benefit for the common good. The basis for this is the fact that Mercedes-Benz sees responding responsibly to social issues and developments as a matter of course.

Exhibitions of the works in the company and in international museums make it possible for a wide section of the public who are interested in art to see the collection. The Mercedes-Benz Art Collection places great emphasis on acquiring young art in order to support new talent. Its collecting practice is consistently orientated towards diversity as well as the promotion of international artists, the diversity of cultures, orientations and views, a broad spectrum of media and the further establishment of women in the context of the collection.

Accompanying publications

A brochure in German and English will be published to accompany the exhibition. This brochure will be available for download as a pdf on the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection website from mid-November.

A free guide to the content of the exhibition is available at the Museum ticket office.
Admission to the special exhibition is included in the regular day ticket.

Note: The use of the photos with artworks from the special exhibition "Moving in Stereo" is permitted for topical editorial reporting on the exhibition.