An exchange between Dunkirk (Hauts-de-France) and Krefeld (North Rhine–Westphalia, Germany), drawing on the respective collections of Kunstmuseen Krefeld and the Frac Grand Large.
Through the exhibition Museums Beyond Boarders, the Frac Grand Large highlights the pioneering role of Kunstmuseen Krefeld at the intersection of art, craft, and design. Free from a chronological approach, the exhibition is structured around major thematic groupings drawn from the museum's collection, offering a critical reading of the history of 20th- and 21st-century art in its aesthetic, social, and political dimensions.
From early 20th-century advertising art to Bauhaus works, from the experimental avant-gardes of the 1960s to more recent commissioned pieces, the exhibition explores the connections between modern art and industrial production, as well as their resonances with the architecture of Mies van der Rohe's two villas: Haus Lange and Haus Esters.
By bringing together archives, historical works, and contemporary proposals, Museums Beyond Boarders invites reflection on our ways of inhabiting space and on the role of today's public collections—as tools of memory, vectors of knowledge, and critical spaces in constant evolution.