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Andy Warhol should open the Museum Ludwig even further - for a new audience, for people who are interested in the star artist not only as a messenger of American mass culture in the form of soup cans and Marilyn portraits.

For this exhibition with works by the pop art artist, Yilmaz Dziewior, director of the Cologne Museum, was looking for a new perspective.

He also focused on the gay and queer aspects of Warhol's work.

Now the Museum Ludwig, like all museums and cultural institutes in Germany, is closed.

Only a poster at the entrance of the building shows that a completely finished exhibition with around a hundred works is waiting for visitors behind the glass facade.

For the second time, Dziewior had to close his house on December 16.

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The corona pandemic has put the entire cultural scene into stand-by mode.

If the first hard lockdown in spring 2020 took place without a loud contradiction, it is different now.

After all, during the relaxation phase in the summer, the museums have taken all precautions to ensure a safe visit to the museum.

For example, the number of allowed visitors has been reduced, explains Dziewior: one person per ten square meters of museum space.

Like in the supermarket.

Anyone who has visited museums in times of easy lockdown knows that, from a pandemic point of view, they were safer than a supermarket.

Now Director Dziewior hopes that the government will decide on Wednesday to reopen the museums after February 14, the lockdown date.

Because the incidence values ​​have improved significantly.

In Cologne the value was 75.4 at the beginning of the week.

Hunger for culture

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Three weeks ago, 20 museum directors wrote to Monika Grütters, Minister of State for Culture.

The tenor of the non-public letter: the museums had "adapted their houses to the new situation with great care" so that they could "make an offer for the hunger for culture without questioning social solidarity".

The museum people argue that the museums have "not been noticed as sites of infection since the beginning of the pandemic" and should therefore be reopened, "adapted to the current course of the corona pandemic".

Dziewior shares the opinion of his colleagues.

A few days ago Monika Grütters reacted and spoke out in favor of reopening the museums as soon as the corona measures were relaxed.

Museums offer spiritual stimuli and could bring lonely people back to life, says Grütters.

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While at the beginning of the crisis all cultural institutions, theaters, concert halls and museums operated according to a common timetable, the situation has now differentiated.

In an interview with WELT AM SONNTAG, Gerhart Baum, spokesman for the NRW cultural council and former interior minister, said that in the current situation, museums could possibly be viewed differently than concert halls.

In the Infection Protection Act, culture is no longer lumped together with the leisure sector, with parks, bars and brothels: theaters, museums, libraries, concert halls, cinemas are places of art that are subject to special protection under the Basic Law.

This also means: pandemic-related restrictions must now be well justified.

Meanwhile, Yilmaz Dziewior is sitting on hot coals.

Because only when it is clear whether, when and under what conditions the museums will be allowed to reopen, can he switch on his online portal to sell the tickets.

Technically everything is ready, the only thing missing is the government's go.

The sooner that comes, the better.

Because financially, the situation for all museums is anything but comfortable.

At the moment, Dziewior calculates, “we have a loss of 80,000 euros per month due to the closed Warhol exhibition”.

For the Corona year 2020, he has calculated a total loss of 1.8 million euros - that is entrance fees, proceeds from the bookstore, the restaurant and the mediation offers.

1.8 million euros, that is a sum that Dziewior cannot reap even with a lot of commitment.

But the director sees himself and his employees in a privileged situation.

The city of Cologne, as the sponsor of the museum, has not ordered any short-time work.

“She told us to save,” says Dziewior.

In the Kunstpalast in the neighboring city of Düsseldorf, director Felix Krämer has designed an even more dramatic scenario.

Although the museum as a municipal foundation is not existentially threatened, it is still "massively in the red".

Krämer calculates: “We lose 10,000 euros a day.” And of course not all employees in museums are permanently employed, many freelancers such as museum educators and freelance curators fear for their existence.

Museums fight for visibility.

Yilmaz Dziewior doesn't twiddle his thumbs either in his sparsely furnished office.

On the contrary: “I have more to do than usual,” he says.

Because the whole program is out of step.

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The current exhibitions must be extended so that, if possible, they can still be seen by an audience.

Future exhibitions will be postponed or canceled.

Since all institutes worldwide are in the same situation, the solidarity among the museums is very high.

Online boost

In addition to his position as museum director, Dziewior currently has the task of orchestrating the German pavilion at the Venice Biennale for this year.

But now the biennial has been postponed to 2022.

He sticks to his choice of the artist, whose name he does not reveal.

Will the pandemic be reflected in the Biennale work?

Dziewior has little doubt about that.

The influences of the global crisis on everyone, including artists, are too strong.

At the moment he has shifted his commitment to the Museum Ludwig to digital.

“The pandemic gave us a digital boost.” This applies above all to the distribution of content via Instagram and Facebook.

For the Andy Warhol show, for example, he was able to win over celebrities such as the singer Wolfgang Niedecken and Warhol nephew James Warhol to make statements.

The museum staff also have their say.

Much is still bumpy, but it is a start.

The museum has around 70,000 Instagram followers.

For comparison: the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf has 40,000 followers and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam 1.4 million.

Yilmaz Dziewior senses the desire of the visitors to stand in front of the originals again.

"You scratch your hooves." He speaks from experience.

Although the number of visitors was initially low after the first lockdown, it would have quickly returned to an almost normal level.

If Dziewior is allowed to open his house, it will be similar with Warhol.

This text is from WELT AM SONNTAG.

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