DRESDEN.- In 2014 the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden (HfBK) is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its foundation. To mark the occasion Mark Dion, the artist of international renown, is carrying out his first project in Dresden, at the invitation of the Art Academy.

For his biggest personal show in Germany to date, Mark Dion (*1961, USA) has drawn his inspiration from things hidden away in the collections of the Dresden Art Academy and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. The broad oeuvre of this documenta artist ranges from drawings and prints via videos, photographic essays, sculpture, installations and dioramas to full-blown expeditions. Mark Dion works with museums and collections all over the world, using his artistic practice to challenge the claim these authorities make to sole sovereignty in the interpretation of knowledge.

In Dresden too, Dion has trawled the depots and archives of illustrious institutions, questioning the systems they traditionally apply to ordering the objects from all around the world which they collect and display. In the process the artist has transformed apparently rigid classifications and triggered debate about the historical context of collections by rearranging their holdings in his complex installations. Following his expeditions into otherwise hidden storehouses, the Academy’s own exhibition space, the Octagon – has been transformed into an Academy of Things, where a fresh look has been taken at the institutional treasures. In cooperation with the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Mark Dion amplifies his exhibition in two „satellits“ in the Green Vault and the Albertinum.

For Mark Dion, himself a passionate collector of all sorts of things, the collection at Dresden Art Academy, which boasts an almost encyclopaedic diversity, is a copious source of material. The HfBK’s picture collection with over 1500 items – including valuable paintings by artists such as Casanova, Kügelgen and Matthäi, and tens of thousands of studies – represents the artistic output of more than 250 years.