“Tanzwelten” exhibition in Bonn: Art with Karstadt

An eye-opener right from the first few meters of the exhibition: the Hamburg State Opera was also a customer of “Karstadt – Sport und Spiel”, the long-faded specialist provider in the Hanseatic city’s pedestrian zone. Purchases were made by the costume department, which ordered decorative materials and wax beads, for example. This is what it says on the edge of a sketch patterned with gold fabric that flashes out of a display case, right at the entrance to the Bonn “Tanzwelten”. Karstadt’s bridging of art and consumption essentially reflects the concept on which the entire show is based. The curators Katharina Chrubasik, Daniela Ebert and Claudia Jeschke are not organizing an expert excursion in the Bundeskunsthalle. Rather, they roll out the dance landscape between ballet and ballroom, community and contemporary dance, more casually than learnedly, including detours into more remote realms: historical figures, Far Eastern gods and ceremonial masques definitely make an appearance.